In the first weeks of the administration, I wrote a number of pieces on the shuttering of PRAMS (the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System), a decades-old data collection and analysis program at CDC tracking infant and maternal health from pregnancy through childbirth and postpartum. It’s a critical source of data across time, affluence, demographic groups, etc. It was shuttered, as I eventually learned, because of the President’s “DEI” executive order. Various of the questions didn’t pass muster under the White House’s standards of what counted as DEI. It wasn’t clear if the shuttering was in effect permanent or whether the program might come back after undergoing some kind of DEI cleanse. Then a couple weeks ago I learned that it was in the process of being resurrected. Some questions were stripped out, but not as many as feared. It also seemed like some data from the disruption period might not be recoverable. There was a lot of work in terms of new IRB reviews and things like that. But it seemed on the way to coming back. Today all CDC employees who worked at PRAMS were terminated (RIF’d). So while there hasn’t been any official announcement that the program is permanently shuttered, all the people who ran it are out as of today.
This is a small data point I’ve been following but one with potentially vast implications. Since mid-February I’ve noticed a consistent pattern based on speaking to many sources across the federal government. In contrast to almost every other part of government, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has emerged relatively unscathed. Obviously, this is not at all a bad thing. CMS oversees Medicare, Medicaid and other federal health care provision services.
This is in great contrast to the situation at the Social Security Administration which has been submitted to a full DOGE onslaught. SSA has been the focus of a propaganda wave from Elon Musk himself, major cuts and a host of disruptions. Wired reported on Friday that DOGE plans to rewrite SSA’s computer system from scratch over a period of a few months. It’s difficult to describe how crazy a plan this is. Such an effort is one that under any realistic timeline would take years not months.
I reported last night that a significant number of SSI recipients had Social Security portals which showed they were no longer beneficiaries. Their payments were also at least slightly late. As of this morning it appears that most or all of those beneficiaries have now received their payments. (I haven’t heard from everyone yet but everyone I’ve heard from has received them.) So as of now this appears to be a records error in the SSA portals rather than a disruption of payments.
As noted last night, in the instances in question, the beneficiaries’ SSA portal now includes the text: “This beneficiary is currently not receiving payments” under “Benefits & Payments.” Those portals now also include no records of historical payments. It’s as though the person had never been an SSI recipient. I will provide more updates when I have more information.
Editor’s note: As of the morning of April 1st, most and likely all recipients discussed in this post have received their payments. So the issue appears to be an SSA portal reporting issue — as described below — rather than a disruption in payments.
I want to tread carefully here. But this seems potentially serious. I am in contact with two families in which the parents have an adult child with severe disabilities who receives SSI payments for their support. In each case, at some time today, their online Social Security portal switched to showing that the adult child was “not receiving benefits.” The full language is “This beneficiary is currently not receiving payments” under “Benefits & Payments.” In one case, the recipient’s payment is later than usual but might still come tomorrow. In the other case, the recipient lives at a facility which receives the payments directly. So that family doesn’t know yet whether there’s been a disruption in payments.
Good post on the indefensible media coverage of the Third Term shiny object being offered up by the President (see also, invading Greenland, etc.)
There is an additional point worth emphasizing. The reason Donald Trump is talking about this third term ridiculousness is very plain. Second-term American presidents are lame ducks. That’s just how it is. And if they are unpopular lame ducks, after awhile their allies may start to look past them toward the future. Trump is undoubtedly terrified of this—of becoming irrelevant before his term even ends, particularly once the race to succeed him heats up. The way for him to keep the specter of lame-duckishness at bay is to tease the idea that just maybe, who knows, he just sorta might run for a third term. That’s the play, and the media is being played.
The relevant portion of the letter goes as follows …
I am writing to advise you that Indiana University has decided to terminate your employment effective immediately. Its my understanding you have informed the chair of your department that you have accepted a faculty appointment with a university in Singapore and will start your role there this summer. Please note that you will not be eligible for rehire with Indiana University.
Only two men have spoken on the floor of the U.S. Senate for more than 24 straight hours. One of them fought to keep Black people out of public life, the other was a Black leader who staged a landmark protest.
