Sponsors (4)
The bill prioritizes preserving local, in-person SSA access and transparency—especially for seniors and people with disabilities—at the cost of higher taxpayer expense, reduced agency flexibility, and procedural delays in office relocations.
Seniors, people with disabilities, and other in-person-dependent beneficiaries retain local SSA field office access, reducing travel, wait times, and risk of lost access to essential benefits services.
The bill requires maintaining staffing levels and a plan to ensure field offices have resources comparable to the prior year, helping preserve benefits-processing capacity and timely service delivery.
Increased transparency (public notice, hearings, IG review, and published reasons/outreach timelines) gives local communities and officials clearer information and input about proposed closures or relocations.
Taxpayers could face higher costs from keeping more field offices open and maintaining higher staffing levels even where in-person demand is low.
Mandating minimum staffing and added procedural constraints reduces SSA flexibility to consolidate offices, reallocate resources, or pursue centralized/online efficiencies, likely raising long-term operating costs.
The moratorium, 180-day notice, required hearings, IG review, and extra analyses will slow relocations and consolidations that could be needed for safety, cost savings, or to respond to population shifts.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Requires SSA to maintain field-office staffing levels as of Jan 1, 2025, bars reducing in‑person access without notice/hearings/IG review, and requires reports and a 10‑year plan.
Official title: To amend title VII of the Social Security Act to improve the Social Security Administration's procedures to close or reduce access to field offices, and for other purposes.
Introduced January 22, 2026 by Gwendolynne S. Moore · Last progress January 22, 2026
Requires the Social Security Administration (SSA) to maintain an adequate number of field offices and staff and to preserve in-person access at least at the levels in place on January 1, 2025. It creates a procedural bar on closing, consolidating, ending leases, or otherwise reducing in-person access to field offices without advance notice, public hearings, publication of reports, and review by the SSA Inspector General, and delays such actions until the IG certifies implementation of the new rules. The bill also expands the Social Security Advisory Board’s required consideration of impacts on people with disabilities and language barriers when evaluating service quality, and directs the SSA Commissioner to report on recent office closures, GSA’s role, and a 10-year plan for staffing and service capacity.