From a press release issued by the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee:
Social Security Administration (SSA) -- $9.7 billion is included for the administrative expenses of the SSA, $125 million over the President􀂶s budget request and $426.38 million more than FY 2007, to ensure that the backlog of disability claims will decrease, as opposed to increase as assumed under the budget request. Within the recommendation, $476.97 million is dedicated to program integrity activities, including disability reviews. SSA reviews current disability cases to ensure beneficiaries remain eligible for Social Security. As a result of those reviews, some beneficiaries are found to be no longer eligible for benefits - for example, their situation may have improved such that they could return to work. If so, there are savings to the Social Security trust funds and estimates show that for every dollar spent on these activities, SSA saves $7 for redeterminations of eligibility reviews and $10 for continuing disability reviews.
We had been hoping for about $400 million over the President's recommended budget. Basically, this budget will do little more than keep things from getting worse. Michael Astrue seems to have been successful so far in his efforts to keep his agency's budget down.
Commented on the wrong post - Should have been this one
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
See: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/circulars/a11/current_year/s22.pdf
In particular:
When responding to specific questions on program and appropriations requests, witnesses will not provide the agency request to OMB or plans for the use of appropriations that exceed the President's request . Typically, witnesses are responsible for one or a few programs, whereas the President is responsible for all the needs of the Federal Government given the revenues available. Where appropriate, witnesses should explain this difference in perspective and that it is therefore not appropriate for them to support appropriations above the President's request.
6:35 AM, June 21, 2007