The head of the Social Security Administration is backing down on his threat to shut down the agency after the White House intervened. On Friday, Interim SSA Comissioner Lee Dudek threatened to close the agency over a judge’s ruling barring Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing personal data for millions of Americans—including Social Security numbers,

"Really, I want to turn it off and let the courts figure out how they want to run a federal agency,” said interim SSA Commissioner Lee Dudek.

Howard Lutnick suggested in an interview that only “fraudsters” would complain if their checks don’t arrive this month.