Federal Times On Social Security Subcommitt Hearing

Some excerpts from a Federal Times article:

Using terms such as “criminal,” “deeply disturbing” and “national embarrassment,” lawmakers ripped into the heads of the Social Security Administration and the Office of Personnel Management on May 1 for failing to bring on new administrative law judges to tackle historically high backlogs of applications for federal disability benefits. ...

“I think it’s criminal — and I’ll repeat that, I think it’s criminal — that you’re waiting until the end of the year now to get it [create a new register from which Social Security could hire Administrative Law Judges (ALJs)] done,” said Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Texas, ranking member of the subcommittee. ...

Astrue said a lack of money — and not the absence of a new register — has been the biggest barrier to hiring new judges. On average, Social Security has received about $180 million less than the president has requested each year since 2001, he said. The additional money would have allowed the agency to process an additional 177,000 disability benefit claims and hold 454,000 additional ALJ hearings since 2001.