U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King asked President Donald Trump’s administration to explain why it briefly delayed Mainers’ access to a program allowing parents to register their newborns for Social Security numbers from maternity wards.
The federal government’s Wednesday decision to cancel contracts with the state quickly reverberated through Maine’s health care sector. It was reversed Friday by the acting head of Social Security, who issued a statement apologizing for placing an unintended “undue burden” on Maine, which was the only state that the changes applied to.
The Trump administration has not fully explained the change, but it comes after the Republican president threatened Maine’s federal funding last month over the state’s policies allowing transgender kids to compete in female scholastic sports. His administration has been investigating Maine institutions for alleged civil rights violations since then.
This week’s changes affecting new Maine parents would have required them to travel in person to one of the state’s eight Social Security offices to fill out paper applications to get Social Security numbers. It also would have shut off a program that allows funeral directors to file death notifications electronically.
In a statement, King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, said he and Collins, a Republican, have asked Social Security administrators to brief them on the reasons for the initial change and why it was reversed.
“Where there are smart, thoughtful ways to make adjustments to existing processes, let’s consider them,” King said. “But that means carefully cutting steps and costs instead of adding tasks and expenses.”
U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat from Maine’s 1st District, called it “yet another example of the utter incompetence” of the Trump administration, which is leading a government-slashing operation headed by billionaire Elon Musk that has led to firing government workers and cutting programs, some of which have been reinstated by judges.
A spokesperson for the Social Security Administration did not respond to a request for an interview with Lee Dudek, the agency’s acting commissioner, on the reasons for the change. A Pingree spokesperson said the agency only sent the office a copy of its news release explaining the reversal on Friday.
The so-called Enumeration at Birth program has been used since 1989 and assigns 99 percent of Social Security numbers, according to federal data. It is also more efficient and secure than collecting birth records from parents in person, said Barbara Bovbjerg, who managed budget research for the Government Accountability Office until her retirement five years ago.
That is especially true now that parents need Social Security numbers for their children earlier in life than they used to, including to get them signed up for health insurance, start savings accounts and get passports. She said cutting access off to one state was nonsensical as a policy matter.
“It just made a lot of sense to have the hospital or midwife for wherever the baby is born certified that the baby was born in this place,” she said of the program.
