SOCIAL SECURITY
Law, Policy & Legislative Affairs
August 29, 2025
Dana L. Gold, Esq.
Andrea Meza, Esq.
Government Accountability Project
1612 K Street, Suite 808
Washington, D.C. 20006
SENT VIA EMAIL. NO HARD COPY TO FOLLOW.
Dear Ms. Gold and Ms. Meza:
It has come to our attention through publicly available sources that you represent a Social Security
Administration (SSA or Agency) employee in connection with a purported protected disclosure
under the Whistleblower Protection Act. We have read the letter directed to the Chairs of relevant
Congressional committees and to the Office of the Special Counsel (the Letter). We respect the right
of any SSA employee to exercise their legal rights without fear of retaliation.
We strongly disagree with the Letter’s allegations and fail to see how the related exhibits (the
Exhibits) support those allegations and your conclusions. In fact, as your own Exhibits show, SSA
rigorously follows security procedures with involvement and oversight by long-time Agency career
professionals, and continues to upgrade core IT systems and network security. The Letter also
shows a lack of understanding of our security methods.
Further, the Exhibits expose proprietary Agency data and have now been made public. The fact that
this information is now publicly available in an unredacted format is alarming and represents a
highly irresponsible release of sensitive government materials.
The Exhibits include e-mail communications and documents that identify, by name, data fields and
information relating to SSA’s systems. In addition, SSA employees who perform highly sensitive
work have been specifically identified along with their contact information and other personnel
information.
While personally identifiable information remains secure at SSA, we are actively mitigating the risk
you have now created for the Agency. This comes at US taxpayer expense.
The irony is not lost on me or this Agency that your so-called “protected disclosure” purports to
allege “serious data security lapses” at SSA while you have taken that very action to put the Agency
and its employees at serious risk.
SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION BALTIMORE, MD 21235-0001
It is in this vein that we demand you cease and desist all future dissemination of unredacted Exhibits
and remove all current postings from the public domain.
While we recognize your role in this process, it is our expectation that you carry out that role
responsibly. Any questions related to this matter may be directed to Mark Steffensen
([Link]@[Link]) or Chris Harris ([Link]@[Link]).
Mark A. Steffensen
Chief of Law, Policy & Legislative Affairs
General Counsel
cc: Electronic Correspondence
danag@[Link]
andream@[Link]
Honorable Rand Paul, Chair
Honorable Gary Peters, Ranking Member
Senate Committee on Homeland Security &
Governmental Affairs
Washington, D.C. 20510
Honorable James Comer, Chair
Honorable Ranking Member, Robert Garcia
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
Washington, DC 20515
Honorable Mike Crapo, Chair
Honorable Ron Wyden, Ranking Member
Senate Committee on Finance
Washington, D.C. 20510
Honorable Jason Smith, Chair
Honorable Richard E. Neal, Ranking Member
House Ways and Means Committee
Washington D.C. 20515
Jamieson Greer
Acting Special Counsel
U.S. Office of Special Counsel
1730 M Street, NW, Suite 218
Washington, D.C. 20036