Biden to nominate O’Malley for SSA
Former Maryland governor and mayor of Baltimore lauded as a ‘proven leader’
President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he would nominate former Maryland governor and Baltimore mayor Martin O’Malley to helm the Social Security Administration, which has been without a permanent leader for two years.
“As mayor of Baltimore and governor of Maryland, he adopted data and performance-driven technologies to tackle complex challenges facing the communities he served,” Biden said of O’Malley in a statement.
He added that as governor, O’Malley “made government work more effectively across his administration and enhanced the way millions of people accessed critical services.”
Biden’s nomination needs the approval of the U.S. Senate. Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, who chairs the Finance Committee that will first vote on the nomination, said in a statement that O’Malley was a “proven leader” who he looked forward to moving through the committee “as soon as possible.”
O’Malley would replace Kilolo Kijakazi, the acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration. She’s run the agency since Biden fired Andrew Saul, an appointee of former Republican President Donald Trump in 2021, after Saul refused to resign.
Social Security pays benefits to roughly 70 million people, particularly those who are retired and who are disabled. It’s financed by payroll taxes collected from workers and their employers.
O’Malley, 60, was mayor of Baltimore from 1999 to 2007, then served two fouryear terms as governor from 2007 to 2015. He was a Baltimore City Council member from 1991 to 1999, and worked
as a prosecutor in the Office of the Baltimore State’s Attorney from 1988 to 1990.
As mayor, O’Malley instituted CityStat, a data-driven method of measuring the performance and efficiency of municipal agencies modeled after a New York City crime-tracking system. When he became governor, he used similar strategies under the name StateStat. His successor in Annapolis merged the effort with another program.
O’Malley sought the Democratic nomination for president in 2016, but dropped out after the Iowa caucuses. Since then, he has been a visiting professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and a fellow at Georgetown University’s Institute of Politics and Public Service in Washington.
He grew up in Montgomery County, and his late mother, Barbara O’Malley, worked for Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski on Capitol Hill for nearly three decades, starting as a receptionist. Martin O’Malley worked for Mikulski’s campaign and on her legislative staff. He is married to Katie Curran O’Malley, a former Baltimore District Court judge.
The Social Security Administration’s U.S. headquarters is in Woodlawn in Baltimore County. The agency has more than 60,000 employees nationwide, including about 12,000 in Maryland.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland said in a statement that O’Malley “knows the importance of supporting this Maryland-based agency and working closely with the dedicated civil servants who power
Then-Gov. Martin O’Malley at a lunch hosted by the Maryland Democratic Party before the 2012 General Assembly session. it — many of whom are Marylanders — in order to deliver vital services to the public.”
O’Malley directed a request for an interview to the White House, at its instruction. The press office did not respond Wednesday.
Democratic Gov. Wes Moore congratulated the former governor on his nomination, saying that O’Malley “elevated our state.”
“Maryland knows that in his new role, his service will elevate our country,” said Moore.
The annual Social Security and Medicare trustees report released in March says the program’s trust fund will be unable to pay full benefits in about 10 years. If the fund is depleted, the government will be able to pay only 80% of scheduled benefits, the report said.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland said people who receive Social Security benefits should be “reassured” by Biden’s choice of O’Malley.
“Social Security is a critical insurance policy that tens of millions of working Americans pay into every year so that benefits can be there when they are older, disabled or leave young children after death,” Cardin said in a statement. “About 66 million Americans — 1 in 5 — receive some benefit from Social Security each year and they should be reassured with Martin O’Malley taking the helm of this agency.”
Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a physician who is on the Finance Committee, also reacted to the nomination.
“Any nominee for Social Security Administration commissioner must be committed to addressing the program’s solvency issues now, not pass it along to the next administration,” Cassidy said in a statement. “In less than a decade, all current and future retirees will face a 24% cut in Social Security benefits. We need leadership to responsibly solve this fiscal crisis.”
Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia applauded Biden’s choice.
“When we were both serving as governors, I found him to be a strong leader and compassionate person who understands the needs of America’s seniors,” Machin said. “The SSA is one of our nation’s most critical support agencies and seniors in West Virginia and across the country rely on Social Security. Governor O’Malley’s unique perspectives and wealth of experience make me confident that he will hit the ground running and be effective on day one. I look forward to working with my colleagues to quickly confirm his nomination.”
The American Federation of Government Employees represents a majority of SSA workers and recently reached an agreement to update the nationwide contract for those employees through October 2029.
“Governor O’Malley is a strong advocate for working people and labor rights, and he has the skills and experience necessary to tackle the various challenges facing SSA like the recruitment and retention of its dedicated workforce,” said Everett Kelley, the union’s national president, in a statement.
A nonprofit group that advocates for Social Security recipients urged the Senate to quickly confirm O’Malley.
“Americans contact SSA at times of change, uncertainty, and often vulnerability — when they have become too disabled to work, when a loved one has died, or when they have reached retirement age. They deserve the first-class service they have earned and paid for through their hard work and contributions,” said Nancy Altman, the president of Social Security Works.
She said Republicans in Congress “have starved SSA of resources, resulting in backlogs and long waits.”
O’Malley “will be in prime position to persuade Congress to allow SSA to spend just a few percentage points more of Social Security’s $2.8 trillion surplus on administrative expenses, as President Biden has requested,” Altman said.