Feb 26, 2008

Congressional Opposition Blocks Reducation In Field Office Hours In Kansas

From a press release posted by Congresswoman Nancy Boyda of Kansas:
Congressman Dennis Moore (Kansas Third District) and Congresswoman Nancy Boyda (Kansas Second District) praised the decision this week by the Social Security Administration (SSA) to suspend its plans to institute a pilot program that would limit public office hours in Kansas City’s SSA field offices.

In October 2007, the SSA announced their proposed pilot program to close public office hours of selected field offices, including those in Kansas. According to SSA, this effort was created to help address their current backlog of benefits and disability cases by improving the processing of claims and inquiries. ...

In response to the proposed pilot project, Rep. Moore and Rep. Boyda authored an October 2007 letter to SSA Commissioner Michael Astrue, expressing their deep reservations about the pilot program and asking that the SSA not only delay the start of the pilot program, but that the SSA field offices in Kansas be removed from the pilot program completely. Rep. Moore and Rep. Boyda reiterated their strong reservations in a November 7, 2007, meeting they organized with Commissioner Astrue and the Kansas congressional delegation. ...

The pilot project was originally scheduled to begin on November 1, 2007, but was temporarily postponed until March 2008. Rep. Moore and Rep. Boyda received a letter from Commissioner Astrue dated February 5, 2008, announcing the indefinite postponement.
Michael Astrue is likely to get some questions on the subject of field office service when he testifies before the House Appropriations Committee. Closing field offices or reducing field office hours is generating great opposition in Congress.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is hopeless--so field offices have to remain open longer hours to deal with questions from people whose cases are not getting worked on because the cr's are manning the front desks and phones to maintain the illusion of public service. This is the dumbest Congress ever.

Anonymous said...

Congress won't appropriate enough money to allow SSA to hire and it won't allow SSA to consolidate shrinking offices and now it won't allow it to cut back on hours open to the public to work on the backlogs. Does Congress think the backlogs will just go away without any resources being directed toward them?