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- The White House fired Andrew Saul, the Social Security head, on Friday evening.
- Advocates and Democrats said the agency slowed distribution of stimulus to people with disabilities.
- Democrats cheered the firing, while Republicans said Biden was injecting politics into the agency.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
President Joe Biden fired Social Security Commissioner Andrew Saul and his top deputy on Friday afternoon. The move sparked a face-off, as Saul said he didn't intend to step down from his post.
Saul, a Trump appointee, had triggered fierce criticism from Democrats and advocates, who said he gummed up the speedy distribution of $1,400 stimulus checks to Americans with disabilities and applied union-busting tactics to labor unions representing federal employees.
The Washington Post first reported Saul, 74, was fired after he refused to step down. His deputy David Black turned in his resignation upon request, The Post reported.
Saul disputed the White House's ability to remove him.
"I consider myself the term-protected Commissioner of Social Security," he told The Post, adding that he planned to sign in remotely and work on Monday.
His six-year tenure was supposed to end in 2025, and Social Security heads aren't typically switched out when a new administration takes power. But the White House appeared to draw from a recent Supreme Court ruling for the authority to replace him amid mounting calls from Democrats to do so.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Saul is a former GOP donor who served on the board of a conservative think tank that advocated for cuts to Social Security benefits. Advocates said the Social Security Administration delayed releasing information to the IRS for stimulus checks earlier this year.
They also said the SSA under Saul made it much more burdensome for people with disabilities to reestablish their eligibility for benefits.
Congressional Democrats and activists cheered Friday's firings. Alex Lawson, the president of Social Security Works, told Insider it was "great news" Saul and Black were no longer in charge of the agency.
"They were put in place by former President Trump to sabotage Social Security, and no one but Wall Street is sad to see them go," he said. "Their attacks on seniors and people with disabilities will be their shameful legacy."
Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio also praised the move. The banking-committee chair said in a statement that Saul "tried to systematically dismantle Social Security as we know it from within."
"Social Security is the bedrock of our middle class that Americans earn and count on, and they need a Social Security Commissioner who will honor that promise to seniors, survivors, and people with disabilities now and for decades to come," Brown said.
Congressional Republicans swung in the opposite direction. Rep. Kevin Brady, the ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, and Sen. Mike Crapo, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, released a statement scolding the Biden administration for ousting Saul.
"Social Security beneficiaries stand the most to lose from President Biden's partisan decision to remove Commissioner Andrew Saul from leadership of the Social Security Administration," Brady and Crapo said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell also weighed in earlier on the prospect of Saul's firing. He wrote on Twitter that Saul's removal would be "an unprecedented and dangerous politicization of the Social Security Administration."
-Leader McConnell (@LeaderMcConnell) July 9, 2021
The Social Security Administration is in charge of dispensing benefits for nearly 64 million Americans who are older, earn low income, or live with disabilities, or one in six people in the US.
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