It appears President Joe Biden is wasting little time in the search for a new Social Security commissioner.
It was just a little over a month ago when Biden fired former commissioner Andrew Saul after Saul declined to offer his resignation to Biden, and news reports indicate that several candidates for the commissioner position have emerged.
Biden named Kilolo Kijakazi as the agency’s acting commissioner after Saul was removed, but it appears that Biden is already working on a permanent replacement. Among the candidates identified in news stories are former member of Congress Donna Shalala, who served as Secretary of Health and Human Services during the Clinton Administration, Seth Harris, a former deputy labor secretary, and Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, an advocacy group aimed at protecting Social Security, and current member of the Social Security advisory board. Below is a portion of the story that was reported in the Huffington Post that identified the credentials for the three candidates reportedly being considered.
- Harris still has admirers in labor circles, however. During the Biden transition, he was rumored to be a candidate for labor secretary, a post that ultimately went to former Boston Mayor Marty Walsh. Bloomberg Law reported that former AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, who died earlier this month, had backed Harris for the labor advisor job he ultimately landed at the White House.
- Shalala clearly has the largest political profile of the contenders. The longtime university administrator headed the Department of Health and Human Services during the Bill Clinton administration from 1993 to 2001 and served a single term in Congress representing a district in South Florida before losing in 2020.
- Altman is the clear policy expert among the leading choices: She is a protégé of past Social Security Commissioner Robert Ball, plus she’s the author of multiple books about the program and is a current member of the Social Security advisory board.
