Doge Wants To Modernize Social Security’s Legacy Tech — What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Yes, Social Security Administration systems that trust connected COBOL request to beryllium updated. No, Elon, it can't beryllium done quickly.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) costs strategy has much than 60 cardinal lines of COBOL code. That makes it 1 of nan world’s largest, not to mention oldest, codebases. Everyone agrees it needs to beryllium updated. But, sorry, there’s nary measurement it tin beryllium updated successful specified months.

Nevertheless, Elon Musk and his “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) declare they can convert nan ancient SSA codification to Java aliases immoderate different modern connection successful only a fewer months. Reminder DOGE isn’t a existent section — and that modernization effort isn’t apt to hap anytime soon.

Seriously, I’ve seen this rodeo before. For example, nan Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has been trying to switch nan 200,000-line assembly connection Individual Master File (IMF) pinch Java for decades. Hasn’t happened. The latest scheme was to replace nan IMF by 2028. I opportunity “was” because President Donald J. Trump, Musk, and DOGE have cut nan IRS modernization costs to zilch. 

As for SSA, it was going to switch COBOL pinch Java successful 2017, a codification translator expected to return 5 years; it failed. (That’s why we’re having this speech now.) Part of nan problem was owed to nan COVID-19 pandemic. But, arsenic Ernst & Young noted, nan agency besides didn’t person a existent scheme for modernizing its bequest IT systems, nor 1 to place and way nan systems.

Guess what? There’s nary existent scheme today, either. All we cognize is that Musk, yes-man Steve Davis and  nine kid package engineers, and immoderate undefined AI programme will miraculously toggle shape nan codification into Java.

I uncertainty immoderate of them tin moreover publication COBOL code. This is, aft all, nan aforesaid unit who thought location were hordes of 150-year-old fraudsters ripping disconnected Social Security. What they didn’t recognize was that COBOL doesn’t person a standardized measurement of dealing pinch dates, which led to records for galore century-old-plus group who were not — I repeat- — not getting an unfair penny of authorities funds.

Why should they know? Over a decade ago, fewer than 1 successful 4 colleges offered COBOL classes.

Thinking of dates, that’s not nan only information successful that codebase kept successful formats incompatible pinch modern languages. Converting this information accurately is important and fraught pinch risks. Any errors during nan conversion process could consequence successful information nonaccomplishment aliases corruption, which would person catastrophic consequences for nan millions of Americans who trust connected Social Security benefits.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick believes that if Social Security checks didn’t spell retired 1 month, his mother-in-law “wouldn’t telephone and complain.” Maybe she wouldn’t — aft all, she has a billionaire son-in-law. I don’t. I stake nan immense mostly of nan 73 cardinal different Americans who dangle connected it don’t person billionaires successful nan family either. 

Even if these youngsters did grok nan language, knowing COBOL is only portion of nan problem. You see, COBOL is much than conscionable a coding language. It besides incorporates organizational processes and policies. That’s not an attack modern developers woody with.

In addition, COBOL systems were not designed to merge seamlessly pinch modern technologies. A migration requires extended customization to guarantee compatibility pinch newer package and hardware, which is some costly and complex. This integration situation was exacerbated by nan request to support nan system’s functionality during the  transition, a delicate balancing enactment that demands meticulous readying and execution.

Meticulous is not nan connection I’d usage for Musk and his move-fast and break-things bunch.

As Waldo Jaquith, erstwhile head of exertion acquisition for nan Inflation Reduction Act, said connected Bluesky astir nan scheme, “I’m an master successful modernizing bequest authorities package systems. This is profoundly stupid and will decidedly fail, and it’s conscionable a mobility of whether our societal information strategy fails on pinch it.

“I cannot deliberation of a azygous morganatic logic for DOGE to execute specified a modernization, particularly connected specified a clip scale.”

Jason Fichtner, a erstwhile SSA lawman commissioner, told CNBC: “If you start messing pinch nan system’s code, that could effect those who are presently getting benefits now, and that’s a caller front-and-center concern.

“You can’t conscionable flip a move 1 nighttime and expect to beryllium capable to upgrade. It takes owed diligence, and you person to understand nan complexity of nan programs,” he added.

In ray of DOGE’s worker cuts astatine nan agency, Fichtner and Kathleen Romig, head of Social Security and Disability Policy astatine nan Center connected Budget and Policy Priorities, warned successful a column: “If Social Security’s machine systems acquisition an outage, which has happened doubly successful caller years, nan agency whitethorn deficiency nan expertise to resoluteness it.” 

Unless Congress acts soon to artifact DOGE’s misguided exertion plans, Social Security, which has ne'er missed a costs successful its astir 90 years, mightiness yet not present American workers’ hard-earned status checks. Yes, bequest systems should beryllium replaced and upgraded. No one’s arguing they shouldn’t be.