Some Highlights From NOSSCR Conference

The National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) conference got under way in earnest this morning. I will have much more detail later, but here are a few highlights - and do read to the end:

• Nancy Shor, NOSSCR Executive Director said that she understood that 5% of Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) would be detailed to Falls Church, where Social Security's Office of Disability Adjudication and Review (ODAR) is based to work on clearing Social Security's hearing backlog, with cases pending over 1,000 days targeted first. Lisa DeSoto, who is in charge of ODAR essentially confirmed this later saying that there had been over 26,000 of these cases and that number had been reduced to less than 19,000. She hoped to get all of these eliminated by the end of the fiscal year, September 30, 2007.
• I had posted earlier about plans to offer positions to retired ALJs to help work off the backlogs. The plan is that these retired ALJs would only work out of Falls Church, which dramatically reduces what may be possible.
• The Federal Reviewing Officer (FedRO) allowance rate is 25%.
• Michael Astrue told Nancy Shor in a recent meeting that many stalled regulations would be moving forward in the near future. When asked if this included the proposed regulations that would increase the age categories of Social Security's grid regulations by two years, Astrue gave a concise answer: "No."
• Nancy Shor said that her meeting with Astrue was mostly a monologue by Astrue.
• Marty Ford of the Association for Retarded Citizens (ARC) and the Coalition for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) said that it was her impression that Commissioner Astrue wanted major changes in Social Security's Office of Medical and Vocational Experts (OMVE).
• Ford said that she thought that Astrue was looking at proposals to close the record earlier.
• Glenn Sklar said that proposed regulations to change the mental impairment Listings were coming and that the changes were significant.
• Lisa DeSoto indicated that she favored a change in the name of ODAR.
• DeSoto said that Commissioner Astrue is interested in an increase in the number of Listings.
• DeSoto said that the backlog at ODAR of cases awaiting a hearing is 750,000. She believes that 400,000 cases is what is needed just to keep work in the pipeline. ODAR is currently disposing of about 550,000 hearing cases per year.
• DeSoto did not use the term re-recon, but indicated that this was very much under consideration.
• DeSoto proudly claimed credit for promoting the idea of a computer program that will "pull" exhibits. I predict that she will regret this.
• DeSoto said that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is going "full steam ahead" with a new ALJ register and expected to have this by the end of this calendar year. The tone of DeSoto's voice expressed clear skepticism about this.
• DeSoto said that re-activating the senior attorney program was under consideration and that, although she could not speak for her boss, Michael Astrue, that she thought that "everyone views it favorably."
• DeSoto said that Social Security may go to 75 day notice of ALJ hearings.