A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency from accessing personal data at the Social Security Administration. In comments after the ruling, the agency’s acting commissioner Lee Dudek told Bloomberg that it may interfere with the SSA’s services.

The Social Security Administration sends millions of benefit checks per month to retirement and disability program beneficiaries, both through Social Security and Supplemental Security Income.

Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander on Thursday barred Social Security Administration employees including Dudek from granting the DOGE team access to information that can be used to identify individuals. DOGE is not an official government department, while its leader, Tesla CEO Elon Musk is considered a special government employee.

The judge also ordered DOGE team members to delete all non-anonymized personally identifiable information they have accessed “directly or indirectly” since Jan. 20.

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Following the ruling, Dudek said the court order is so broad that it could apply to any Social Security employee, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.

“My anti-fraud team would be DOGE affiliates. My IT staff would be DOGE affiliates,” Dudek told Bloomberg. “As it stands, I will follow it exactly and terminate access by all SSA employees to our IT systems.”

Dudek also said he would ask the judge to immediately clarify the order, the news outlet reported.

“We have received the court order and we will comply,” a Social Security spokesperson said in an email statement to CNBC on Friday. The agency did not respond directly to questions from CNBC on the Bloomberg report, or to make Dudek available for comment.

In a memo sent to Social Security staff members on Tuesday that was obtained by NBC News, Dudek apologized for having made mistakes and promised to learn from them.

Dudek assumed the role of acting commissioner in February when then acting commissioner Michelle King stepped down due to DOGE privacy concerns. Dudek, a long-time Social Security employee, reportedly publicly disclosed he had been placed on administrative leave for cooperating with DOGE.

President Donald Trump has nominated Frank Bisignano, CEO of payments technology company Fiserv, to serve as commissioner. Bisignano’s Senate confirmation hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.

House Ways and Means Committee ranking member Richard Neal, D-Mass., on March 19 put out a statement that called the current situation at the Social Security Administration a “five-alarm fire.” New changes that may limit customer service and restrict benefit access are “not just burdensome for our nation’s seniors and people with disabilities — they are back-door benefit cuts,” Neal wrote.

Meanwhile, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., in a March 12 statement said Democrats are “scaremongering to score political points,” while “the facts are not on their side.”

“President Trump did not touch Social Security benefits during his first term,” Smith said. “House Republicans and President Trump remain committed to protecting and preserving the retirement benefits seniors count on.”

There have been 27 market corrections since November 1974, including last week’s market move, according to Mark Riepe, head of the Schwab Center for Financial Research. That amounts to roughly one every two years or so, on average.

Most of them haven’t cascaded into something more sinister. Just six of those corrections became “bear markets” (in 1980, 1987, 2000, 2007, 2020 and 2022), according to Riepe. A bear market is a downturn of 20% or more.

In reality, pullbacks are a less-risky time to invest, relative to when stocks are hitting all-time highs and feel more “exciting,” said Klontz, managing principal of YMW Advisors in Boulder, Colorado, and a member of CNBC’s Advisor Council.

Investors are also buying stocks at a discount, known as “buying the dip.”

“It’s an incredible opportunity for you to be putting more money in,” Klontz said.

This is especially the case for young investors, who have decades for stock prices to recover and grow, Klontz said.  

Investors in workplace plans like 401(k) plans unconsciously take advantage of stock selloffs via dollar-cost averaging. A piece of their paycheck goes into the market every pay cycle, regardless of what’s happening in the market, Klontz said.

Of course, certain investors with cash on the sidelines may be able to take advantage of selloffs by investing in undervalued stocks, Benz said. U.S. large-cap stocks, for example, were selling at a roughly 5% discount relative to their fair market value as of Wednesday, according to Morningstar.

“I would let the asset-allocation target lead the way in determining whether that’s an appropriate strategy,” Benz said.

Generally, you calculate RMDs for each account by dividing the prior Dec. 31 balance by a “life expectancy factor,” according to the IRS. Some companies calculate RMDs for you, but you’re ultimately responsible for withdrawing the correct amount.  

There’s a 25% penalty for skipping the RMD or not withdrawing enough, said certified financial planner Scott Bishop, partner and managing director of Presidio Wealth Partners, based in Houston.

But the IRS could reduce the fee to 10% if you correct the mistake, withdraw the proper amount within two years and file Form 5329. 

“If you miss [the RMD], own up to it,” Bishop said. “Make sure you’re timely with it.”  

In some cases, the IRS could waive the penalty entirely if you show the shortfall happened due to “reasonable error” and you’re taking “reasonable steps” to fix it, according to the agency.