Astrue: "I want to fix this thing on my watch"

Excerpts from an Associated Press article:

More than 160 new administrative judges are needed to ease the backlog of hundreds of thousands of disability cases and eliminate yearslong waits to determine who qualifies for benefits, the new head of the U.S. Social Security Administration said.

“I want to fix this thing on my watch,” said Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue, who was sworn in Feb. 12.

Astrue and Republican Sen. George Voinovich held a meeting in Columbus on Monday to explain the problem and Astrue’s proposed solutions. ...

Adding 168 administrative law judges to the 1,082 currently hearing cases would speed up the process, Astrue said. He also said he favored fast-tracking urgent cases, such as those of cancer patients, and allowing some cases to be heard electronically.

Those are just three out of dozens of recommendations Astrue plans to make to the Senate Finance Committee later this month.

“There’s no one magic bullet,” he said.

Monday’s discussion was the second time in recent years that Voinovich brought a Social Security official to Ohio to explain the backlog.