All federal agencies must submit any regulations they wish to propose or to finally adopt to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which is part of the White House, for approval before publishing them in the Federal Register. Usually, OMB approves Social Security regulatory filings in a few weeks at the most.
On February 11, 2008 Social Security submitted to OMB proposed final regulations that would change the Ticket to Work program. The proposal is still at OMB awaiting disposition after two and a half months. That is rather long for a Social Security regulatory proposal to remain pending. The delay suggests that OMB is having some problem with the proposed regulations. I have no idea what the problem is. It could nothing more than a small disagreement over the computation of whatever budget effect the regulations might have or it could be a more serious policy disagreement, but there is some sticking point or these regulations would have been out quite some time ago.
On February 11, 2008 Social Security submitted to OMB proposed final regulations that would change the Ticket to Work program. The proposal is still at OMB awaiting disposition after two and a half months. That is rather long for a Social Security regulatory proposal to remain pending. The delay suggests that OMB is having some problem with the proposed regulations. I have no idea what the problem is. It could nothing more than a small disagreement over the computation of whatever budget effect the regulations might have or it could be a more serious policy disagreement, but there is some sticking point or these regulations would have been out quite some time ago.
I don't know where you get your information from but your statement that "Usually, OMB approves Social Security regulatory filings in a few weeks at the most." is not based on fact. Not if you are talking about a substantial regulation. OMB has 90 days and it often takes almost all of those 90 days. They need to review it for cost and policy, and often meet with the agency to discuss some of the issues and any concerns they have. Sometimes more than one component within OMB needs to review and approve the regulation. There is no reason to believe that the Ticket regulation is in any trouble and SSA is moving ahead with its plans to implement the new regulation once it has been approved by OMB and published.
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