Stansbury: DOGE trying to shut down Social Security call centers in NM

By: AUSTIN FISHER
Courtesy of Source NM

U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) met with retirees at the North Domingo Baca Multigenerational Center in Albuquerque on Aug. 7, 2025. (Courtesy photo by Dylan Bonner)

Ahead of Social Security’s 90th anniversary next week, U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) said during a news conference in Albuquerque on Thursday that actions taken against the social safety net program by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency are laying the groundwork for its privatization.

“Part of what we’ve seen since DOGE has taken over Social Security is that they’ve dramatically cut back hours, they’re trying to shut down centers all over New Mexico, including in Rio Rancho,” she said.

There are 468,030 New Mexicans who receive monthly Social Security benefits, including retirees, disabled workers and children, according to a news release from Stansbury’s office.

Albuquerque has one of the largest Social Security call centers in the country, Stansbury said, which serves beneficiaries across the nation. The staff there told her office during a recent visit that the facility was built to house as many as 500 workers, and is now down to approximately 200, she said.

“DOGE has hacked into the computer systems and data of the Social Security system,” she said. “The system is crashing.”

John “JD” Doran, an American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees retiree and second vice president of the NM Alliance for Retired Americans, said people using Social Security to survive are experiencing longer wait times, broken websites and delayed claims.

“You have no idea what retirement security means until you retire and find out you don’t have it,” Doran said. “We’re trying to prevent that from happening. Social Security contributes more than $3 million to New Mexico’s economy every month — that’s what keeps this state strong.”

Stansbury last month introduced the Hands Off Our Social Security Act, which would make it illegal for any federal administration to privatize Social Security; require Congressional consent to downsize the Social Security Administration’s workforce and offices; mandate that the program maintain public access via phone lines; and protect beneficiaries’ sensitive personal data.

Stansbury said the bill was prompted by the DOGE Subcommittee’s last hearing in which a panel of conservative analysts with the Heritage Foundation and associated organizations discussed privatizing the program. Stansbury is the committee’s ranking Democratic member.

When Stansbury introduced the legislation, she said on the floor of the House of Representatives that the Trump administration “is trying to systemically dismantle” Social Security.

More than 70 million Americans rely on Social Security, co-sponsor U.S. Rep. John Larson told the House. He said it is the country’s “number one anti-poverty program” for seniors and children, and more veterans rely on it than the Veterans Administration.

Stansbury said on Thursday Larson told her the GOP and think tanks in favor of privatization’s end goal is to break the Social Security system now so that they can make the case for privatizing it later.

“They don’t want it to work,” she said. “Really big money is behind being able to take the principal that you paid into Social Security your entire life that you worked, and they want to take that money and gamble it on the stock market so that they can make money off of it.”

Stansbury said she doesn’t think it’s likely the current Congress will take up her bill because it is “trying to dismantle so many of these programs.”

​“But we felt it was important to take a strong stand and say: ‘Do not privatize Social Security,’” she said. “We’re going to fight back with everything that we can.”