Reps. Salinas, Sorensen Introduce Legislation to Undo Trump Administration’s Attempts to Bury Social Security Performance Data

Washington, D.C. — Today, Representatives Andrea Salinas (OR-06) and Eric Sorensen (IL-17) introduced the Social Security Data Transparency Act. This legislation would require the Social Security Administration (SSA) to post and regularly update metrics on their website such as wait times, system outages, and number of callers on hold. By requiring SSA to display these metrics, the bill would give Americans greater insight into SSA’s performance and efficiency.

This bill was inspired by outreach from constituents to Rep. Salinas’ office. In response to a growing number of complaints from constituents about the challenges they faced at SSA, Rep. Salinas worked with Rep. Sorensen to draft the Social Security Data Transparency Act.

In February 2025, the Trump Administration cut 7,000 SSA workers—about 12% of its workforce—and closed six regional field offices, leaving only four. In early June 2025, SSA removed comprehensive performance data from its website. This included customer service metrics like the current call wait time, callback wait time, number of callers waiting on hold, and the number of callers waiting on a callback. Without these data, Americans are unable to track how these cuts are impacting SSA performance.

“The Trump Administration is determined to make it harder for Americans to access assistance from the Social Security Administration by cutting critical staff, and they have gone as far as removing publicly accessible data showing the impact of these cuts. Their attempts to cover up their detrimental harm are completely unacceptable,” said Rep. Salinas. “That is why I am introducing the Social Security Data Transparency Act, which would require the Social Security Administration to reinstate the customer service data metrics that they eliminated from their website earlier this year. The American people deserve full transparency.”

“The Trump Administration and DOGE took a wrecking ball to the Social Security Administration earlier this year, including removing live data for callback times and wait times on the phones for people simply trying to access the benefits they’ve earned,” said Rep. Sorensen. “Sharing performance metrics, like callback times, call wait times, and other key performance indicators, on publicly accessible sources ensures that Social Security is working for the millions of Americans who rely on it. True government efficiency comes from transparency and making our neighbors' lives easier.”

"Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano appears to be playing games with numbers to mislead the American people. He pulled important metrics off the Social Security Administration's website and has replaced them with different ones, meaning that people trying to evaluate the agency's performance over time are forced to compare apples to oranges. That makes it impossible for Congress, as well as independent experts, to conduct proper oversight,” said Nancy Altman, President of Social Security Works. “The Social Security Data Transparency Act would fix this by requiring Bisignano to restore the normal metrics. It reminds Bisignano and the other billionaires in the Trump Administration that they work for the American people. Thank you to Reps. Salinas and Sorensen for fighting to get Americans transparent information about their hard earned Social Security benefits."

This bill also requires additional metrics that would improve transparency, such as:

• Average time it takes for a claimant to have a hearing
• Number of system outages that result in SSA staff being unable to perform their job functions
• Percentage of claimant interactions that are resolved during the first contact with the SSA

 To read the full text of this legislation, click here.

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