DOGE Plans to Rebuild SSA Codebase in Months, Risking Benefits and System Collapse
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Summary
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is reportedly working to move the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) computer systems off one of its oldest programming languages, which could put the system’s integrity at risk.
The project is being led by Steve Davis, a lieutenant of Elon Musk, and aims to migrate all SSA systems off COBOL, one of the first common business-oriented programming languages, and onto a more modern replacement like Java within a tight timeframe of a few months.
Under any circumstances, a migration of this scale would be a massive undertaking, but the expedited deadline risks obstructing the payments of the more than 65 million US citizens currently relying on social security benefits.
The SSA has been under increased scrutiny from the Trump administration, and Musk has falsely claimed that the agency is rife with fraud, leading to significant cuts to the agency by DOGE.
This proposed migration is not the first attempt by the SSA to move away from COBOL, and it is unclear when exactly the code migration would start.
