Congressman Auchincloss Press Conference 4 17 2025

I want to particularly welcome uh my fellow speakers at this event and in particular the mayor of Fall River Paul Kugan. Paul, thank you for being here um Representative Wlette and uh my friend representative uh Carol Fiola as well.

And we'll be hearing from the electeds as well as uh other stakeholders in protecting social security and financial freedom from the attacks of the Trump administration. I am here this morning to defend social security against the tax being levied against it by Donald Trump, Doge, and his administration. on behalf of the 150,000 constituents in the Massachusetts 4th who receive social

security benefits and on behalf of the 1.3 million base stators across all nine congressional districts who rely upon social security the most important program for retirement securities retirement security excuse me for American elders and the most important anti-poverty program for American children as well the attack against Social Security by the Trump administration has three

parts. First, they tried to degrade the quality and the service of Social Security. They're doing that by cutting off phone service for constituents who rely upon it. They do that by coming after the leases for field offices like the one here in Fall River, declaring 440 field offices as quote noncore assets for uh Americans who rely upon social security. The individuals who come to these office think that these

offices are core. I can assure you of that. That's step one. They degrade the services around social security. Number two is they make fraudulent claims about waste or abuse within social security.

We heard the president in his joint address to Congress lie about the number of beneficiaries wrongfully claiming Social Security benefits under the Social Security Administration. Those were inaccurate, erroneous statements.

Social Security is a well-run program with very low rates of fraud, waste, or abuse. They are making these fraudulent claims to set up what is step three of their attacks on Social Security, which is to privatize Social Security. They're they're going to degrade the services.

They're going to claim that there's waste, fraud, and abuse. And they're going to use those two, degraded service, and claims about waste, fraud, and abuse as pretext for step three, which is to privatize Social Security.

They tried to do it under the George W.

Bush administration. Senator Rick Scott of Florida, who is in close collaboration with Elon Musk, has already made clear he wants to do it now. And just like Democrats fought it off under the Bush administration, we will fight it off again. Democrats protect Social Security. The attacks upon the safety net of Social Security and Medicaid, which Republicans are trying to cut uh in the weeks ahead, are the first prong

in a two-prong assault upon Americans financial freedom. At the same time as Republicans are cutting the social safety net through Social Security cuts and Medicaid cuts, they are also tanking the United States economy. In this last week, I have met with investors behind uh multinational businesses. I have met with every single chamber of commerce uh in my district here in Massachusetts. I

have met with labor leaders of southeastern Massachusetts. I have met with social services providers throughout the Massachusetts 4th. I have met with my constituents through a tariffs town hall. Across all five of those meetings, whether talking to big businesses, small businesses, labor leaders, average Americans, social services providers, I have heard the same single sentiment, uncertainty. This economy is being

paralyzed by the uncertainty and chaos being injected to it by Donald Trump's incoherent trade war. It is tanking retirement accounts. It is raising prices. And it is causing businesses to push pause on investments and hiring.

This president's chaos and incompetence is going to push a good economy into a recession. And as people get tipped into a recession, they are not going to have the social safety net programs like Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid to rely upon given his attacks on these foundational elements of retirement security and financial freedom. We are here to defend Americans financial freedom against Donald Trump's

cruelty and incompetence. And I'm now welcoming Mayor Paul Kugan uh to to discuss uh the importance of social security in this office to fall river.

Thank you, Jake. You're gonna have uh Carol Ver.

Okay.

Um this social security office in the city of Fall River and I do want to thank everybody for coming out today is a key part to the services throughout our community. whether people um need need help with their elderly, disabled, this office is extremely busy. It's centrally located. You come by here any morning at quarter of 9 and there's a line of people waiting to get in. Uh the

services that are going to be cut from our city. If we lose this office is going to be probably one of those phone trees where you hit six, hit seven, and you're going to be on the phone for hours if you're fortunate enough to get a person to talk to that can help you with both your claim, an issue, or something going wrong. In the city of Fall River, Social Security has been

He's on top of these issues and he's out front fighting this good fight and we're going to be standing right with him. Um, and to that end, I'm going to introduce one of my colleagues on the state legislature who works with us all the time on these kind of very, very important issues for the city of Fall River, Representative Carol Fiola.

Um, thank you, Congressman. We are so lucky to have you in these very unpredictable and uncertain times. Um there's going to be a lot that we can say uh and and and um criticize about what Donald Trump and and Doge are doing. There's a lot. But today and very real is the potential of this office being closed. And that is a disgrace because have you been in there?

People come in all day. People who some don't have transportation. Some don't have computers. They come in here to rely on the self-help computers. They rely on the excellent professional staff that are in there working every day. So, um it's absurd. This office, the mayor mentioned, has been here a long time. I talked to a member of the media that's here today who's my age, and that's not

young, whose grandfather used to run this office. That's how valuable to not only the residents of Fall River, but the residents of this region that this building is. So there's going to be a lot of absurdities to talk about, a lot of absurdities that we've heard about, but this one today is could be very dangerous for the people of this region and the people in my district and the

people of Fall River. So I'm very glad that my colleagues are here today. Rep.

Wlette, I see Senator Rodri's office is represented. He's working on our budget right now. um really great partners and while our hands are a little tied with this administration, we have to keep reminding people of these absurdities.

Thanks Carol.

Now, happy to welcome Rich Coutur of the of AFG, the American Federation of Government Employees.

Thank you. Uh my name again is Rich Couture. to represent uh 40,000 hardworking Social Security employees all over the country, including the dedicated staff that work at the Fall River Field Office. I want to talk a bit about the potential of this office closing because despite statements from this administration and from Elon Musk about holding Social Security harmless, that they're not going to cut benefits,

the reality of the situation is that if they close offices and they make uh they make the American people who have paid through their FICA contributions not just for their earned social security benefits, but for the access to those benefits, if that access is restricted or cut off because they don't have the transportation. They can't go hundreds of miles to the ne the next nearest

office. That's a benefit cut. If you can't access your social security benefits that you've paid for through the services that you've paid for, that is a benefit cut, plain and simple. Now, back at the beginning of March, this office along with practically the entire federal building inventory overseen by the General Services Administration was put on this list as, as the congressman

said, a non-core property for sale. And it's very disconcerting because you also had other very large buildings like the JFK building and the Tip O'Neal building in Boston that also house social security offices, other uh federal agencies and the offices of senators Marky and Warren uh were going to be put on the market. And then as a response of the public and congressional outcry,

that list came down the very next day saying, "No, no, no, no, no. We we we jumped the gun. We put that up too quickly and we're we're reconsidering it." And so now those offices that were previously on that list are slowly being reinstated. There is a list that is on the GSA website now and it is growing.

So this office is by no means safe. Doge has made it very clear, this administration has made it very clear that they want to get rid of federal buildings. They want to shed, as we found out in February, up to 7,500 federal office leases all over the country. The Social Security Administration has 1,400 of those leases. So, this is about closing offices. And while they've said, "No, we're not closing any offices in

2025, if true, it's only half the truth." Because according to their draft strategic plan, as as has been reported in the press, they will start closing Social Security offices in 2026. So we all have to remain vigilant if we want to maintain good, highquality services with highly trained, highly productive, professional civil servants in our communities. We cannot relent. We must

stand up and fight to protect offices like this one in Fall River as as well as social security offices all over the country. Thank you. And next up, I want to welcome my colleague uh president of Local 1164, Camille Pierro. Thank you.

Thank you for your time and thank you for having me this morning. My name is Camille Pedro. I am the president of AFG Local 11644. We represent the Social Security employees throughout New England. I have worked for Social Security for almost seven years full of learning challenges and privileges. The work we do is essential to America's well-being.

Social Security employees ensure that we pay the right person the right amount at the right time. The agency has never missed the payment in 90 years. The rate of fraud in Social Security is less than 1% and our overhead costs are about 0.05% far less than any other private insurance or plan.

We do this while severely under staff and under the threat of catastrophic reduction in force. We provide excellent service under an endless stream of lies about the agency we serve, the work we do, and the systems we protect. In the last few days, we have seen our systems deployed against lawful immigrants. They used our systems to declare those h people dead and preclude them from earning wages and paying into

social security. That order goes against various policies and violates the integrity of the data we collect and the systems we use. Since the first days of the current administration, we have heard them so suspicient against public servants in the hopes of eliminating public employees and privatized services. I want to remind you of two facts about social security. First of all, social security benefits do not

contribute a penny to the federal deficit or the national debt. Second, it is an earned benefit fully funded by our payroll taxes. You paid into Social Security. You're entitled to those benefits without cuts or delays. If the administration reduces the workforce and we are unable to pay you timely, that is a cut on your benefits. If the administration closes offices and you're unable to come in to

conduct your business, that is a cut on your benefits. If the administration reduces phone services, that is a cut on your benefits. Social Security is the line. Help us protect the agency, the services we provide, and the employees.

Hold your ground on social security.

Protect the financial security and the basic well-being of the American people.

Thank you for your time. I would like to introduce Tracy Albernas from the United Interfaith Action. Thank you.

Good morning everyone. I am Tracy Albernaz. I am the former of a community organizer with United Interfaith Action of Southeastern Mass, UIA. We work on social, economic, and racial justice issues in the gateway cities of Fall River and New Befford. um here in the south coast. Um thank you to Congressman Aenclauss for having us today. The far social security office was built in 1969

and has been serving the residents of the south coast ever since. It's not just Florida residents who come here to this office, but residents from the surrounding communities as well. Myself and my family have been have used the services in this office for many years.

A few years back when I needed to get my real ID, I had misplaced my social security card. Um, I didn't have time to to make a phone call to to order it online for it to come through the mail, but I was able to come down to this physical office and have my card in a matter of minutes. The need for a physical social security um office in this community is

extremely important. Um, one of our community members just this past month, Donald Milky, he needed to call about his disability benefits. He called on the phone. He spent over an hour trying to get through to someone. He had he had no luck. He was able the next day to come here to this office and within 15 minutes he was able to get the help that he needed. From birth to death, a local

social security office serves our most vulnerable population from babies to the disabled to the elderly. So closing this social security office here in Horver would be devastating to our community. I'd now like to introduce um Marilyn F. Marian who's the president of the Massachusetts Alliance for Retired Americans.

Good morning everyone. It's a pleasure to be here. I'm Marilyn Flowers Marian.

I'm president of the Massachusetts Alliance for Retired Americans and I'm also the chairwoman of the retired teachers chapter of the Boston Teachers Union. Social Security is what we work for. We've spent our lives working to be able to retire with dignity. Social Security offices staffed by government workers from Social Security. the the unfortunately there are many lies that go along with social security. They say

that social security is a big Ponzi scheme that social security make up the majority of the federal spending which is wrong. That there are millions of people in the United States who are dead and collecting social security. Of course that is wrong. We believe that the practical and fair way to extend the trust fund solvery while also increasing benefits, it is to lift the cap on

social security payroll taxes above the currently $176,100 and require that high income high income Americans pay their fair share of taxes into the system. Our retirees should not have to travel so far away or maybe there won't be any to offices. They should be able to have an office right here and convenient for all to be able to attend and to work. Thank you for listening to me today.

As you can see, there's solidarity in support of financial freedom and against the Trump administration's attacks on social security. Happy to take a few questions.

Congress, how does this play into another fear for a community like Fall River? Potential cuts in Medicaid. Yes.

I mean, I know that's all part of the the whole package, right? It is. it it's it's core to financial freedom. So uh Americans uh what they're seeing right now is their retirement accounts have lost 10 15% which is a meaningful trade-off for people in their 50s and 60s and 70s thinking about how they want to spend uh their retirement years. At the same time, they're facing higher prices for

home insurance, car insurance, utility payments, groceries, grocery grocery bills, and their employers, if they're still working, are telling them that uh we're not hiring anymore. We may have to be looking at layoffs because of uncertainty. So as they're as we are seeing uncertainty start to contract what was a good economy now Americans are looking at core programs they rely on social

security medic and Medicaid being the three most foundational uh under attack by Republicans earned benefits and social security as well as uh Medicaid support for mass health which is uh 40% of kids in Massachusetts it is uh support for individuals with intellectual uh disabilities amilies and their families. It is at home care for seniors in the Bay State. This is not a narrowly scoped program Medicaid. This

is a program that impacts uh most Bayate families personally. Congressman, in terms of timing, I would say 2026. I guess there's no real answer, but when when do you expect to see any of these cuts start happening? We're seeing the cuts right now when they uh when they degrade customer service through phone tree dynamics and they talk about you know applying AI to people's social

security experience as some of the other speakers indicated when you impair access you are functionally cutting people's social security benefits are earned benefits um as terms of the timeline for their for what I described as a three-part scheme of one degrade the service two claim waste fraud and abuse use three, privatize it. I mean, we're moving at the speed that you trust Donald Trump, right? I mean, they're

maybe claiming 2026, but they they're Doge and the administration and Rick Scott are, I think, feverishly working to do it this term in the 119th when they have the trifecta.

Is this office in danger of Yes. Is it?

Yes.

Thank you for the questions and thank you uh to our speakers for demonstrating the solidarity. Um really it's not a political issue. It's an issue about protecting the earned benefits of Americans. Appreciate it.