The administration of President Donald Trump has reversed its decision to cancel a program that allows parents to register their newborns for Social Security numbers from hospital maternity wards.
Alisa Morton, spokesperson for Maine Department of Health and Human Services, confirmed Friday morning that the Social Security Administration has reinstated two contracts that enable birth and death information from Maine providers to be shared with the federal agency electronically.
The Social Security Administration initially notified Maine officials this week that it was canceling contracts it had with the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s office of data, research and vital statistics. Maine CDC sent out notifications Wednesday to providers of such services that those contracts had abruptly been terminated.
Lee Dudek, acting commissioner of the federal agency, apologized Friday for the decision.
“In retrospect, I realize that ending these contracts created an undue burden on the people of Maine, which was not the intent,” Dudek said. “For that, I apologize and have directed that both contracts be immediately reinstated.”
The Trump administration’s reversal on the order was first reported by the Portland Press Herald.
The cancellation of the contracts would have required parents of newborns to travel in person to the agency’s offices with their infants to fill out paper applications to have Social Security numbers assigned to them.
The Social Security Administration has offices in eight locations in Maine — Auburn, Augusta, Bangor, Portland, Presque Isle, Rockland, Saco and Waterville — according to the agency’s website.
The location in Presque Isle has been mentioned by the Trump administration as one of many properties that the federal government might sell. If it were sold, the nearest Social Security office in Maine for people who live in Aroostook County would be in Bangor, which, for Madawaska residents, is more than 200 miles away.
The agency’s Bangor office is currently the closest one for Washington County residents. Parents of newborns in Eastport would have had to drive 115 miles to get Social Security numbers for their children.
At the other end of the life spectrum, Maine funeral home directors would have had to send in paperwork to Social Security officials, certifying to the agency that someone had died, rather than sending in that information electronically.
Theresa Roberts, vital records supervisor at Maine CDC, said in a letter to providers on Wednesday that the program that allowed parents to apply at hospitals and other birthing centers for Social Security numbers for their new babies — called enumeration at birth, or EAB — has been widely used.
“EAB is voluntary for parents,” she said in the letter. “However, almost all parents utilized the EAB to obtain an SSN for their child.”