President Joe Biden has nominated former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley as the next commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA), the White House announced on July 26.
Mr. O’Malley, a Democrat, would require the Senate’s confirmation to lead the financially challenged agency, which is one of the largest social programs in the nation responsible for distributing benefits to the elderly and disabled.
Responding to Mr. Biden’s nomination in a post on Twitter, Mr. O’Malley said that he is “humbled and honored” to be chosen by the president to lead the SSA into the future.
“President Biden believes Social Security is a sacred promise,” Mr. O’Malley said. “I look forward to earning the Senate’s approval and serving with the hardworking patriots” of the SSA, he added.
In a statement, Mr. Biden described the former governor as a “lifelong public servant” who has made government work more productive across his administration and improved the way “millions of people accessed critical services” while also keeping the Americans at the center of his work.
“As Mayor of Baltimore and Governor of Maryland, he adopted data and performance-driven technologies to tackle complex challenges facing the communities he served—and I saw the results firsthand when we worked together during my time as Vice President,” Mr. Biden said.
Mr. O’Malley served as governor of Maryland from 2007 to 2015 and was also the mayor of Baltimore for two terms. In 2016, he ran as a presidential candidate for the Democratic primary but ultimately suspended his campaign after suffering devastating caucus results that led to him ruling out running again in the future.
Before being elected mayor, Mr. O’Malley served as a member of the Baltimore City Council from 1991 to 1999, and before that, he served as an assistant states attorney for the city.
Kilolo Kijakazi has been the acting commissioner of the SSA since 2021 after Mr. Biden fired Andrew Saul, who was one of a few remaining holdover officials appointed by former President Donald Trump.
Response
Mr. Biden’s nomination was applauded by the president of Social Security Works, who described Mr. O’Malley in a statement as a “longtime Social Security champion.”
“Like President Biden, O’Malley supports expanding Social Security’s modest benefits, not cutting them,” said Nancy Altman. “At a time when Social Security is under attack from Republicans in Congress, O’Malley is the fighter that the American people need at SSA’s helm.”
Mr. Biden has accused Republicans of trying to undermine the program, including before his debt limit fight with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and the 2022 congressional elections.
Congress has been unable to agree to longer-term solutions to finance the program, which accounts for a fifth of government spending, a proportion that will only grow as the country ages.
The main Social Security trust fund’s reserves will be depleted within a decade, the program’s trustees and the Congressional Budget Office both estimated this year.
Last October, the agency announced that Social Security recipients would get an 8.7 percent boost in their benefits in 2023, a historic increase prompted by record-high inflation.
Social Security is financed by payroll taxes collected from workers and their employers. The maximum amount of earnings subject to Social Security payroll taxes for 2023 is $160,200, up from $147,000 in 2022.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.