On July 3, 2026, the Social Security Administration (SSA), through the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), released its 2026 Regulatory Agenda. It includes fifteen rules in the proposed or final stages. Notably, the agenda omits two prior proposals that advocates had strongly opposed: the rescission of the public assistance household rule, and the so-called “Mega-Reg” proposal.
It was reported in November 2025 that the agency had backed away from the Mega-Reg. The agency never publicly released details of the proposal, but after it appeared on the Spring 2025 agenda, The Washington Post and others reported that the proposal would have made it more difficult for claimants, especially for older workers, to qualify for disability benefits. The rescission of the public assistance household rule, if finalized, would have reversed the improvements to how SSA counts in-kind support and maintenance (ISM) against the benefits of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients who live with others, by preventing ISM reductions if the SSI recipient lives with a person enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The rescission would have reduced benefits by hundreds of dollars a month for hundreds of thousands of recipients, and end eligibility entirely for some. Details about the proposals were reported in the October 2025 and January 2026 issues of this newsletter.
The new agenda includes proposals related to SSA’s privacy regulations, another area that has drawn scrutiny from advocates and other observers. One proposal, which would expand the consideration of “compatible purposes,” is of particular concern to advocates who have been expressing alarm regarding the agency’s recent data-sharing policies and compliance with Privacy Act requirements. The Privacy Act requires agencies to publish in the Federal Register “each routine use of the records” and also the purpose of such use. 5 U.S.C. § 552a(e)(4)(D). “Routine use” means, with respect to the disclosure of a record, the use of such record for a purpose which is compatible with the purpose for which it was collected. 5 U.S.C. § 552a(a)(7).
The current agenda description states that the proposal would add another compatibility definition to 20 C.F.R. § 404.150(c), allowing SSA to share identity information for non-law enforcement purposes, including identity proofing and fraud detection with programs such as Login.gov or other federal programs. Given current privacy concerns, advocates will be watching the proposal closely once published to assess the exact scope of the new proposed use.
Other new proposals include one that would formally end SSA’s automatic mailing of Social Security Statements; however the agency had already largely done so despite a statutory requirement to provide statements to certain eligible individuals by mail. 42 U.S.C. 1320b-13(a),(c). Social Security Statements are also available on request or online through a my Social Security account.
Another new proposal is aimed at implementing the requirement that Social Security payments be made electronically. Conversion to electronic benefits payments has been prioritized the past year pursuant to Executive Orders 14247 and 14249, but Treasury’s rules still allow waivers for individuals who qualify for an exception for the receipt of paper checks. That process was discussed in the October 2025 newsletter. The proposal also addresses SSA’s digital collection activities.
Several items have been carried over from the prior agenda, including the final rule changing the cardiovascular listing, an update discussed in detail in a separate article in this issue of Disability Law News. Another proposal carried over from the prior agenda is one welcomed by advocates. It would streamline the rules for dedicated accounts for children receiving SSI.
Another proposal carried over from the last agenda is to update the modalities offered for disability hearings at the reconsideration level in medical continuing disability review cases, by establishing in person, agency video, online video, and audio as standard manners of appearance. Current rules permit a claimant to request a hearing in any form, 20 C.F.R. §§ 404.933, 416.1433, but SSA is also seeking to make the use of the hearing request form SSA-HA-501 mandatory. The proposal also includes plans to consolidate, and potentially simplify, the forms that used to designate the ways to attend a hearing – notices that are decidedly confusing for claimants.
SSA is rescinding a COVID-era rule that provided a more flexible timeframe for demonstrating certain criteria under the musculoskeletal listings. The rule was discussed in the July 2023 and January 2021 issues of the newsletter. The agency is also rescinding the inclusion of Refugee Act of 1990 payments from the list of public income maintenance payments (PIMs), a list used by SSA to determine whether a claimant is in a PA household. Eligibility for the payments is now limited to a four-month period, rendering these benefits an imperfect proxy for determining financial need.
Beyond the substance of the proposals, the 2026 agenda signals a shift in the timing of how often SSA and other agencies will publish their regulatory agenda. It is the first one published since September, 2025, and in its naming and its timing, the Trump Administration appears to be departing from the longstanding schedule of publishing a regulatory agenda semi-annually. Compared to prior agendas, the introduction to the Unified Agenda for all federal agencies no longer describes the agenda as being published “in the fall and spring” and “twice each year.” Neither OIRA nor the Regulatory Information Service Center appears to have publicly explained the change. Regulatory experts at the George Washington Regulatory Studies Center have noted that “[t]he Regulatory Flexibility Act requires agencies to publish semiannually in the Federal Register a ‘regulatory flexibility agenda,’ but the administration does not call this ‘spring’ Agenda, and appears to have opted for a single one for the year.”
