DOGE says two KY Social Security offices will close. Lexington federal offices also face cuts
Two Kentucky Social Security offices will likely close under President Donald Trump’s administration’s efforts to slash government spending.
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has listed offices in Hazard and Campbellsville as offices to be closed. They are two of at least 45 Social Security offices targeted for closure, according to the DOGE website.
U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Kentucky, said the office targeted for closure in Hazard is an office that once handled Social Security appeals but is no longer open.
“Social Security Administration officials informed me that it will be closing an empty Social Security office in Hazard that was designated to be used periodically for hearings,“ Rogers said. “No SSA employees are stationed at the empty hearing site that will be closed. With nearly 85% of SSA hearings now being held virtually or by telephone, DOGE has identified empty office space that can be closed to help save taxpayer dollars.”
Also listed on DOGE’s website are two Lexington-based federal agencies —the U.S. Farm Services Agency and the U.S. Small Business Administration.
DOGE and Musk have been tasked with making sweeping cuts to the federal government including laying off unknown number of federal employees and pausing some federal funding.
The website said all four Kentucky offices’ leases will be or have been terminated. It was not immediately clear Thursday morning if that meant the offices were closed, or if the agencies moved to different office space. Some other offices listed on the DOGE website as closed had moved to a different location.
The Herald-Leader also found instances of DOGE claiming credit for closing offices that were closed months ago. For example, a U.S. National Archives site in Fairfield, Ohio, was listed on the DOGE website as closed, but that facility’s closure was announced by the federal archive service in August, prior to President Trump’s victory in November and the creation of DOGE.
The DOGE website does not list addresses for agencies targeted for closure.
There are two different locations for the U.S. Farm Services Agency in Lexington — one on Corporate Drive and another on Leestown Road.
There does not appear to be an address for the small business administration in Lexington. There is an office in Louisville, according to the Small Business Administration website.
The Campbellsville Social Security office is at 101 Hiestand Farm Road.
Campbellsville Mayor Dennis Benningfield said he has not received any information about the Campbellsville office shuttering. Benningfield said he had been told by staff at the office that several years ago there had been discussions about creating regional offices and possibly shuttering the Taylor County office.
“We have not heard anything,” Benningfield said.
Emails and calls to U.S. Rep. Jamie Comer, who represents Campbellsville, were not immediately returned.
Emails to the Social Security offices were also not immediately returned.
Kentucky has more than 20 Social Security offices, not including Hazard and Campbellsville, according to the Social Security website.
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Social Security had 1,200 field offices. Staff in those offices served 43 million applicants and beneficiaries in 2019.
This story was originally published February 27, 2025 at 8:46 AM.
