Maine Gov. Janet Mills answers questions about President Donald Trump’s actions targeting Maine after a public appearance in Lewiston last month. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

Democrats in Congress are calling on acting Social Security Administrator Lee Dudek to resign following revelations that he called Maine Gov. Janet Mills a “petulant child” in an email to staff demanding retribution for her White House dust-up with President Donald Trump.

Dudek also dismissed warnings from his staff that his effort to punish Mills by making it harder for Maine parents to register their children would have repercussions, including the risk of opening the door to identity theft.

Mills, in a written statement Wednesday, did not join the calls for Dudek to resign but said Social Security’s “leadership must act in a manner” that reflects the “solemn obligation” of the agency’s duty to the American people.

Dudek briefly canceled contracts in Maine and required parents to register their newborn in person at a Social Security office, rather than simply checking a box in the hospital and having Social Security cards sent to their homes. The nationwide program, which allowed parents to easily fill out forms while still at hospitals or health care settings, has been in place since the 1980s.

After an outcry, the Social Security Administration reversed its decision, and the program was reinstated the next day, March 7.

Dudek had admitted that he was “ticked” at Mills for standing up to Trump during a National Governors Association meeting at the White House in February. Trump had threatened to take away federal funding for Maine if it did not alter a policy allowing transgender athletes to compete on girls high school sports programs.

Mills pointed out that Maine was following state human rights laws protecting transgender people, saying, “See you in court.”

According to communications obtained by the House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform, Dudek emailed staff that same afternoon about terminating Maine contracts.

A staffer warned that such action “would result in improper payments and potential for identity theft.”

Later that day, Dudek responded that he wanted them terminated anyway.

“Please cancel the contracts,” he wrote. “While our improper payments will go up, and fraudsters may compromise identities, no money will go from the public trust to a petulant child.”

Democrats on the Congressional Oversight Committee obtained some of Dudek’s emails but are seeking more.

Rep. Gerald E. Connolly of Virginia, who is the highest ranking Democrat on the oversight committee, sent a letter to Dudek on Tuesday calling on him to resign.

“The acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration should serve the American people, not create waste, fraud, and abuse on the taxpayer’s dime,” Connolly wrote.

“The American people deserve answers about your activities and communications in the time between President Trump’s February 21, 2025, public threat to Governor Mills and your February 27, 2025, order to cancel the enumeration at birth and electronic death registration contracts with the state of Maine, and about your knowledge that canceling these contracts would lead to increased waste, fraud and abuse,” he wrote.

Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-1st District, reiterated her earlier call for Dudek to resign, saying the move to cancel the contracts against Maine was akin to a “hit squad.”

“The Trump administration has unleashed an unprecedented barrage of bureaucratic terror against our state,” Pingree said in a written statement. “Dudek’s own internal emails reveal not merely incompetence but calculated malice — a federal official explicitly ordering the sabotage of essential services to punish a state for daring to uphold its own democratically enacted laws.”

Mills, in a written response to questions from the Press Herald, pointed to broader concerns about chaos and cuts within the Social Security Administration.

“The growing uncertainty around rushed and reckless cuts to Social Security is unacceptable,” she said. “Social Security is not a scheme — as some have said — it’s a covenant between our government and its people. The Social Security Administration’s leadership must act in a manner that reflects this solemn obligation.”