“Social Security is under attack. Social Security is under siege. The chainsaw is pointed at their earned Social Security benefits. We believe Republicans have manufactured a crisis at Social Security,” Wyden said at a news conference.

Social Security faces insolvency in the next decade, at which point benefits could be cut by 17%. The agency has been targeted by Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which has enacted measures such as cutting 7,000 jobs, or 12% of the workforce, and reducing regional offices from 10 to four.

Such changes could disrupt benefits, which would amount to back-door benefit cuts, Warren said.

“We should be expanding Social Security benefits, not cutting them. And we should be asking the richest Americans to pay their fair share into the program. It’s time to fight for Social Security,” Warren said at the news conference. “We can protect Social Security from Trump and Musk’s greed, and build a future where everyone in this nation can retire with dignity.”

Warren said Musk earns $8 million a day from the federal government, while the average Social Security recipient earns $65 a day in benefits.

Andrew Biggs, senior fellow with the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute, said he thinks that opponents of the Trump administration’s changes at the Social Security Administration have “already had some successes,” such as pushing back against new identification processes that would have required more Americans to apply for benefits in person rather than over the phone.

Meanwhile, while DOGE announced a number of field-office closures, SSA later said that those offices wouldn’t be closed, Biggs said.

“That said, what happens inside of federal agencies has less salience to the public than changes to the public’s benefits, which the Trump administration has promised to protect. So there may be limits to how much political mileage Democrats can get from the Social Security issue,” Biggs said.

Advocacy group Social Security Works said the effects of changes made by DOGE are just starting to be felt, and there could be a flood of problems as personnel cuts and technology changes take hold.

The Social Security website also has had technical difficulties recently, which sparked concerns among beneficiaries who are increasingly being pushed to interact with the agency online. 

The SSA said there were a couple of “brief disruptions” lasting about 20 minutes each, and some people may have been unable to sign into their personal “my Social Security” account.

Media reports said that in addition to not being able to log into personal accounts, some recipients of SSI got error messages incorrectly saying “this beneficiary is currently not receiving payments.”

“There have been a trickle of stories about troubles accessing Social Security webpages,” said Social Security Works spokeswoman Linda Benesch. “It could turn into a flood in the coming weeks and months.”

The announcement of the war room comes amid the pending vote by the Senate Finance Committee on the confirmation of Frank Bisignano as head of the Social Security Administration. 

The Senate Finance Committee did not reach a quorum to vote on Bisignano’s nomination on Tuesday as planned, so a vote could take place at any time. A new time has not been announced.

Bisignano’s confirmation hearing last week took a twist when Wyden said a whistleblower at SSA asserted that Bisignano “has been talking to people at Social Security every day for weeks now.”

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, an Idaho Republican, said Bisignano addressed some of those concerns in writing this week, saying he does not have a role at SSA and was not part of the decision-making process led by the current acting commissioner, Lee Dudek, about SSA operations, personnel or management.  

Bisignano also told the committee that he communicated with former Acting Commissioner Michelle King multiple times and had brief introductory phone calls with individuals chosen for various acting roles. Bisignano said he has not spoken with Dudek, beyond a short introductory phone call.

As to other SSA personnel, Bisignano reiterated in writing to the committee that he has a 20-year professional relationship with Michael Russo, who was previously the SSA’s chief information officer and now serves as a senior adviser. Bisignano has had “periodic contact with another on general matters related to the agency; was referred to another to help him with preparation for his confirmation hearing; and the last individual he does not know at all,” Crapo said in a statement.

“Businesses would bring him on board when they want to cut, cut, cut,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said of Bisignano, who oversaw thousands of layoffs during CEO stints at First Data and Fiserv. “You don’t bring Bisignano on board to head the agency if you want to strengthen it. You bring him on if you want to emaciate it,” Schumer said. “Putting Bisignano in charge of Social Security is hiring an arsonist to run the fire station.”

Meanwhile, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey has been speaking on the Senate floor for more than 21 hours, since 7 p.m. Eastern on Monday, protesting the policies of Trump and Musk.