By law (since 1983) Social Security Trustees are composed of six people, four government officials like the Treasury Secretary, head of HHS and two public trustees.
The two public trustee positions on the Social Security Board of Trustees have been vacant since 2015. The last public trustees, Charles P. Blahous III and Robert D. Reischauer, appeared on the 2015 Trustees Report.
One historical SSA page states that the positions have effectively been vacant for most years since 2008, except for the period when Blahous and Reischauer served (2011–2015).
Beginning with the 2016 report, both public trustee positions were listed as vacant and have remained vacant through the most recent reports.
As of 2026, that means the positions have been unfilled for about 11 years. The Social Security Administration’s Trustees Board normally consists of:
- The Secretary of the Treasury (Managing Trustee)
- The Secretary of Labor
- The Secretary of Health and Human Services
- The Commissioner of Social Security
- Two public trustees appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate for four-year terms.
The public trustees are intended to provide an independent, bipartisan perspective on the financial status of Social Security and Medicare.
Why the Vacancy?
The positions require presidential nomination + Senate confirmation, a process vulnerable to delays from:
• Partisanship and political priorities: Administrations (across parties) have deprioritized these roles amid other fights, election cycles, and broader confirmation gridlock. For example, near the end of the Obama administration, nominees were put forward but the Senate (in an election year) did not act on them. Subsequent administrations under Trump and Biden did not successfully fill them either.
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