Social Security head canceled vital contract with Maine to punish governor, emails show

A Social Security Administration order to ban Maine parents from registering their newborns at local hospitals was issued as political payback to the state’s governor for defying the Trump administration, emails show. 

In early March, Leland Dudek, the acting head of the Social Security Administration, issued – then quickly rescinded – an order that would have required Maine parents to register their newborns for Social Security numbers at a federal office rather than the hospital.

The order drew rapid and widespread condemnation, as the practice of allowing parents to register a newborn for a Social Security number at a hospital or other birthing site, called the Enumeration at Birth program, has been common for decades.

RELATED: Watch: Trump clashes with Maine's governor: "See you in court"

Emails show canceled contract was political payback

Dig deeper:

Dudek didn’t publicly provide a reason for terminating the Enumeration at Birth contract on March 5. When he reinstated the contract two days later, he only said he will "admit my mistakes and make them right."

"In retrospect, I realize that ending these contracts created an undue burden on the people of Maine, which was not the intent," Dudek said in a statement.

FILE - Emails show the Social Security Administration canceled a vital contract in Maine to punish the state's governor for defying the Trump administration (Photo illustration by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

But newly revealed emails show that Dudek canceled the contract as political payback to Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat who has defied the Trump administration’s push to deny federal funding to the state over transgender athletes.

"Please cancel the contracts. While our improper payments will go up, and fraudsters may compromise identities, no money will go from the public trust to a petulant child," Dudek wrote in an email to agency staff, according to The Huffington Post. 

Why you should care:

Despite the quick reversal, Nancy Altman, executive director of the Social Security Works advocacy group said "the damage has been done."

"Without those contracts, SSA did not automatically know who was born in Maine — or who died," Altman said. "This will create huge headaches for families, as well as Social Security’s rapidly shrinking workforce, to fix."

Democratic lawmakers are now calling for Dudek to resign. The Social Security Administration wasn’t immediately available for comment. 

USDA programs paused in Maine

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins also said Wednesday that the department is pausing federal funds for some Maine educational programs because of Title IX noncompliance.

What they're saying:

"In order to continue to receive taxpayer dollars from USDA, the state of Maine must demonstrate compliance with Title IX which protects female student athletes from having to compete with or against or having to appear unclothed before males," Rollins wrote in the letter to Gov. Mills. 

"In addition, USDA has launched a full review of grants awarded by the Biden Administration to the Maine Department of Education. Many of these grants appear to be wasteful, redundant, or otherwise against the priorities of the Trump Administration. USDA will not stand for the Biden Administration’s bloated bureaucracy and will instead focus on a Department that is farmer-first and without a leftist social agenda," the letter continued. 

Why is the Trump administration targeting Maine? 

The backstory:

Maine has been the subject of federal investigations since Mills sparked the ire of Trump at a meeting of governors at the White House in February. During the meeting, Trump threatened to pull federal funding from Maine if the state does not comply with his executive order barring transgender athletes from sports.

RELATED: California’s Gavin Newsom opposes trans athletes in women’s sports, splitting with progressives

Mills responded: "We’ll see you in court."

The Trump administration then opened investigations into whether Maine violated the Title IX antidiscrimination law by allowing transgender athletes to participate in girls' sports. The Education Department issued a final warning on Monday that the state could face Justice Department enforcement soon if it doesn't come into compliance soon.