Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley approved by US Senate to lead Social Security Administration

The U.S. Senate, in a bipartisan vote, overwhelmingly approved former Baltimore Mayor and Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley to lead the Social Security Administration Monday.

O’Malley, a Democrat, will replace Kilolo Kijakazi, the acting commissioner of the Woodlawn-based agency. She has run the agency since Democratic President Joe Biden dismissed Andrew Saul, an appointee of former Republican President Donald Trump, in 2021, after Saul refused to resign.

O’Malley, 60, was approved on a 50-11 vote with many senators missing the vote on a light day for legislative business. Six Republicans voted for O’Malley and no Democrats voted against him.

“I think we’re going to have a leader at the Social Security Administration that will understand the responsibilities to the recipients, as well as those performing public service,” Sen. Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat, said on the Senate floor.

Cardin and fellow Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen had rallied behind O’Malley, whose nomination was approved 17-10 by the Senate Finance Committee on Nov. 28. The 17 “yes” votes included three Republicans: Iowa’s Chuck Grassley, North Carolina’s Thom Tillis and Louisiana’s Bill Cassidy.

O’Malley is a former presidential candidate who was the mayor of Baltimore from 1999 to 2007 and the governor of Maryland from 2007 to 2015.

O’Malley sought the Democratic nomination for president in 2016, but dropped out after the Iowa caucuses. Since then, he has been a visiting professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and a fellow at Georgetown University’s Institute of Politics and Public Service in Washington.

He grew up in Montgomery County, and his late mother, Barbara O’Malley, worked for former Sen. Barbara Mikulski, a Democrat, on Capitol Hill for nearly three decades, starting as a receptionist. Martin O’Malley worked for Mikulski’s campaign and on her legislative staff. He is married to Katie Curran O’Malley, a former Baltimore District Court judge.

As mayor, O’Malley instituted CitiStat, a data-driven method of measuring the performance and efficiency of municipal agencies modeled after a New York City crime-tracking system. When he became governor, he used similar strategies under the name StateStat. His successor in Annapolis, Republican former Gov. Larry Hogan, merged the effort with another program.

“I’m confident in his commitment to protecting this vital earned benefit and delivering critical service for those who count on it,” Van Hollen said Monday.

The annual Social Security and Medicare trustees report released in March says the program’s trust fund will be unable to pay full benefits in about 10 years. If the fund is depleted, the government will be able to pay only 80% of scheduled benefits, the report said.

The agency has more than 60,000 employees nationwide, including about 12,000 in Maryland. It has 10 regional offices.