BALTIMORE — A 35-year veteran of the Social Security Administration who works out of its headquarters in Woodlawn, Shelley Washington describes himself as “the guy that makes sure grandma gets her check.” He’s the one, he said, who gets the call at 2 a.m. if the system goes down.
A potential mass exodus of his colleagues because of President Donald Trump’s steps to slash the federal workforce isn’t just destabilizing for his office — it’s a moment he believes could upend a service he’s dedicated his career to and that millions of people rely on.
“I’m a lifer,” said Washington, a systems programmer and expert on the agency’s batch production software. “I know nothing else but this, so it’s very scary.”
Washington was among about 150 public officials, retirees and workers who rallied outside the headquarters Monday afternoon to protest a slew of actions from Trump, Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency in recent weeks. Those include several moves to reduce the federal workforce and, in recent days, attempts to infiltrate the Treasury Department system that handles Social Security benefits and tax refunds.
A federal judge temporarily blocked DOGE’s access to that system over the weekend after Maryland joined 18 other states in suing Trump.
The president and his government efficiency czar have said they’re not aiming to stop entitlement payments, only to save money and eliminate “waste, fraud and abuse” across government. But Democrats and some benefits recipients said Monday their actions threaten nearly every part of how Social Security functions.
At the very least, beneficiaries’ private bank accounts and other personal information could be exposed, they said. At worst, an agency with already low staffing levels could be eroded to the point of not being able to function properly.
Washington, who in addition to his work at Social Security also leads the local union representing some of its workers, said he believes 3 percent to 5 percent of the 7,000 employees at the Woodlawn headquarters have already filed paperwork to retire or resign since Trump took office. The stress has been too much, and they’re opting to be proactive by stepping away at a time when no one knows what will come next, he said.
“We already are in a customer service crisis,” Rich Couture, president of the American Federation of Government Employees council representing some Social Security employees, said in an interview after the rally. “This would lead to an entire collapse of public service from Social Security.”
Musk, for his part, has said his efforts are intended to ensure the government has a full grasp of what it’s paying. In a post on X on Saturday, he claimed there are $50 billion to $100 billion in fraudulent entitlement payments to individuals per year, though he did not specify where those figures came from or if they are even correct.
“If accurate, this is extremely suspicious,” he wrote.
Retirees at the rally Monday chanted, waved handmade signs and screamed out in worry during a series of speeches by Maryland elected officials.
“Keep your forking hands off our $$$$,” read one sign, referring to the “fork in the road” email that went out to millions of federal workers two weeks ago asking them to resign with seven months of paid leave. “Nobody elected Elon Musk” and “Hands off our Social Security” read others.
“It’s like being invaded,” Carol Goldstein, an 83-year-old retired nurse from Towson, said in an interview about Musk’s team trying to gain access to the payments system.
Debra Brown, 71, of Pikesville, said she was “scared to death” about what it could mean for her and others’ personal information.
