Astrue At NOSSCR Conference

Michael Astrue spoke today at the conference of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) in St. Louis. Here are some points which I gleaned from his remarks, with my comments in brackets:

• Former Commissioner Barnhart's Disability Service Improvement (DSI) plan was budgeted for 35% of his agency's budget when Astrue took office. [I found that to be a stunning figure. I can understand why Astrue may have thought when he first took office that merely cancelling DSI would free up a lot of dollars to deal with his agency's backlogs. The fact that it did not is very strong proof of just how unrealistic DSI was.]
  
• He described the Social Security Administration (SSA) as "struggling." He is "frustrated" with the length of time it takes to get out disability decision.
  
• Two years ago SSA had 66,000 employees. By the end of this year [calendar year (CY) or fiscal year (FY)?] SSA will have fewer than 60,000 employees.
• In this FY, Social Security will generally be unable to replace employees who leave. Disability Determination Service (DDS) offices will be allowed to replace one employee for every two who leave, because of their higher employee turnover rate.
  
• Astrue expects 150 new Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) to come "online" by April 2008. It was clear that he was talking only about 150 new ALJs, not a net increase in the number of ALJs. [150 new ALJs may not be enough to even cover the normal attrition in ALJs between now and the end of the FY.]
• He hopes that SSA will have a new interactive website by "next year" through which attorneys will be able to view their clients' files at SSA and that SSA will have an I-Appeals system which will allow for the online filing of appeals -- "next year." [Again, is the "next year", the next CY or the next FY?]
• Astrue is looking at shutting down many temporary offsite hearing locations.
• SSA is working on new regulations on the recognition of law firms and other similar entities as claimants' representatives. He hopes to get this to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), where it would have to be approved, by early 2008. [This would not sound like anything important to an SSA employee or even to many who represent Social Security claimants, but it is a potentially major change which dramatically eases the path towards larger entities, either law firms or non-attorney entities, to represent Social Security claimants.]
• Astrue wants it to be possible for attorneys to be able to attend Social Security hearings electronically from their offices. He described this as "big."
• Earlier plans to open several new hearing offices around the country have been shelved due to lack of funds.
• Astrue has been wondering why it has been many years since SSA has asked Congress for legislation to simplify its processes or reduce its workloads.
• Instructions on the Senior Attorney program are going out "now."
• Astrue feels that he learns more when he takes unscheduled visits to Social Security offices and facilities. [A very wise observation.]
• He described many of Social Security's work processes as being medieval and said that "It's a miracle and a credit to the people that the system still works."
• Astrue said that he was becoming convinced that SSA has too much "bricks and mortar" and that he wanted to put more money in people. [Interesting, but what does it mean?]
• SSA now has 11 cases at the Merit Systems Protection Board against ALJs. [By SSA standards this is a stunningly high number.] He intends for SSA to be much more "proactive" on ALJ discipline. He talked about being heavily involved in ALJ disciplinary matters when he worked at SSA previously and being frustrated at the lack of action on ALJ discipline at that time. He said that there was one current ALJ who was trying to simultaneously hold down a second full time federal job! [OK, who is it?]