May 24, 2006

SSA Official Plans To Be Doubledipper

James Lockhart III, who holds the second ranking position at Social Security as Deputy Commissioner has been nominated by the President to be the Director of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO). Lockhart is awaiting Senate confirmation, but in the meantime the President has appointed Lockhart to be the Acting Director at OFHEO. Morningstar reports that Lockhart plans to keep his job as Deputy Commissioner at Social Security even after confirmation in the OFHEO job. He is receiving no salary from OFHEO now, but Lockhart expects to draw salaries both from OFHEO and SSA once he is confirmed at OFHEO.

Lockhart has already been critical of the compensation paid to executives at Fannie Mae, one of the federal housing corporations that he is now overseeing. Those executives were granted enormous bonuses based upon fraudulent accounting. Lockhart is quoted in the Washington Post as saying that "You could argue none of it [bonuses paid to Fannie Mae executives] was deserved."

Lockhart's dual role could cause serious problems for OFHEO and SSA if something happens to Jo Anne Barnhart, the Commissioner of Social Security, since Lockhart would then become the acting head of Social Security as well as OFHEO.

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