Jan 9, 2006

Many Comments on Age NPRM

Although the time has passed to comment on the proposal to add two years to the age categories of the grid regulations, Social Security continues to post comments on its website that were received before the deadline passed.

Today, there is a comment opposed to the proposal from Congressmen Charles Rangel, Sander Levin and Jim McDermott. Rangel is the ranking Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee in the House of Representatives. Levin is the ranking Democrat on the Social Security Subcommittee and McDermott is the ranking Democrat on the Subcommittee on Human Resources. No Republicans joined in their opposition to the proposal.

The Coalition for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) has posted its comments opposing the proposal. The CCD is an umbrella group of many non-profit organizations dealing with disability issues.

Somewhat surprisingly, the
West Virginia Disability Determination Service has also written in to express opposition to the proposal. On the other hand, Florida DDS has written to support the proposal, although they recommend that "that SSA conduct an independent study to determine the number of unskilled jobs at each exertional level that realistically exist today since that is a critical underlying premise of the vocational rules." They do not explain why it would not be best to do such a study before making the change.

Expressing opposition were:
  1. American Council of the Blind
  2. National Council of La Raza
  3. Epilpesy Foundation
  4. Paralyzed Veterans of America

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