In a stunning display of political pettiness, the Social Security Administration’s acting commissioner, Leland Dudek, is facing mounting pressure to resign after a now-rescinded order targeted Maine’s most vulnerable residents—newborns.
On March 5, Dudek abruptly terminated Maine’s long-standing contract with the federal Enumeration at Birth (EAB) program, which has for decades allowed parents to register their newborns for Social Security numbers directly at the hospital. The change would have forced exhausted, recovering parents to trek to a federal office to secure what is essentially a baby’s key to everything—healthcare, taxes, and identity itself.
But this wasn’t a bureaucratic hiccup. Newly revealed emails suggest Dudek’s action was deliberate retaliation against Maine Governor Janet Mills, a Democrat, for her refusal to comply with former President Donald Trump’s executive order banning transgender athletes from participating in girls’ sports. In one internal email, Dudek wrote, “no money will go from the public trust to a petulant child,” a snide reference to Gov. Mills’ vocal defiance during a February governors’ meeting.
Let that sink in: a federal agency used access to Social Security numbers—the gateway to medical care and basic identification—as a political cudgel. Against babies.
Medical professionals, legal experts, and civil rights organizations quickly sounded the alarm, warning that Dudek’s order could lead to serious consequences, including increased risk of identity theft and improper payments to unverified individuals. The backlash was swift and severe.
Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) minced no words in calling for Dudek’s resignation: “If a federal agency can be turned into a political hit squad at the whim of an acting appointee, what checks remain on executive power? Commissioner Dudek’s vindictive actions against Maine represent a fundamental betrayal of public trust that disqualifies him from public service.”
Governor Mills, whose state has one of the highest rates of Social Security recipients per capita, condemned the move as a “rushed and reckless” assault on the very fabric of federal trust. “Social Security is not a scheme,” she said. “It’s a covenant between our government and its people.”
And this is where the transgender community needs to pay very close attention.
This incident wasn’t random. It was born directly out of Trump’s ire over Mills’ refusal to enforce an executive order that would have barred transgender girls from competing in sports aligned with their gender identity. After Mills responded with a bold, “We’ll see you in court,” the Trump administration began a series of investigations into Maine’s alleged Title IX violations. On Monday, the Education Department issued a final warning: comply or face DOJ enforcement. Now the Department of Agriculture is withholding educational funds over the same dispute.
This is blatantly state-sanctioned retaliation, with the trans community once again serving as the scapegoat.
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, has demanded Dudek’s resignation and an immediate interview regarding internal SSA emails that reveal the order to cancel Maine’s EAB contract came just days after Trump’s public threat. “The American people deserve answers,” Connolly wrote, “about your knowledge that cancelling these contracts would lead to increased waste, fraud, and abuse.”
The acting commissioner’s defense? During a press call on March 18, Dudek said he canceled the contract because “it looked like a strange contract” and admitted, “I screwed up.” He added, “I was upset at the governor’s treatment… but I’m not interested in political retaliation.”
The emails say otherwise.
The Bottom Line
The real tragedy here is that this game of bureaucratic brinkmanship targeted infants and their families—all because a governor refused to roll over and sacrifice trans kids on the altar of political appeasement.
Nancy Altman, executive director of Social Security Works, summed it up perfectly: “Despite the agency’s reversal, the damage has been done.”
For transgender people, their families, and their allies, this moment is a sobering reminder of how quickly federal agencies can be weaponized—and how close to the edge our rights remain. If a governor standing up for trans youth can provoke a national agency to attack an entire state’s newborns, we have to ask: what’s next?
It’s not paranoia if it’s already happening. Stay informed. Stay loud. Stay proud.
