An ostensible crackdown on “waste, fraud and abuse” inside the Social Security Administration is making giving birth even more complicated for some Americans.
New parents in Maine must now go into a Social Security office to register their newborn children for a Social Security number, ending a decades-old rule that allowed parents to apply at a hospital shortly after birth. The Maine Department of Health and Human Services notified hospitals via email on Wednesday that “effective immediately, the option for parents to participate in the enumeration at birth process will be suspended,” per the Portland Press Herald.
“Parents will need to visit their local Social Security Office to apply for their child’s Social Security number,” the notice states, clarifying that the process for applying at birth for a Social Security number, the most common method by far, is going the way of the dodo. The changes force Mainers to bring their babies into one of just eight offices across the state, with swaths of the state an hour or more away.
Existing SSA guidance noted that applying “when you provide information for your baby’s birth certificate in the hospital” was the “easiest way to get a Social Security number.” The department has been hard at work revising long-standing practices since DOGE head Elon Musk made claims of fraud inside the Social Security system.
The Maine DHHS, in a statement to the Press Herald, attributed the development to a change in federal policy. It’s unclear if Maine is the only state to be impacted by the change or just the first to experience it.
The abrupt end to a decades-long policy comes after Maine's governor publicly clashed with President Donald Trump over her commitment to upholding the legal rights of transgender athletes. At the time, Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from the state.
“See you in court,” Mills told the president at a National Governors Association gathering, promising to defend the legal rights of transgender athletes.
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