Commissioner's Message On Appropriations

Subject: COMMISSIONER'S BROADCAST--12/18/09

A Message To All SSA And DDS Employees

Subject: FY 2010 Appropriation

Some good news to share!

President Obama has signed the omnibus appropriations bill for fiscal year (FY) 2010. The appropriations bill provides us with the amount requested in the FY 2010 President’s Budget, which represents a 10 percent increase over our FY 2009 appropriation.

Sustained, adequate funding for our agency makes a real difference to the American people. With the additional funding Congress provided over the last few years, we have made significant progress in enhancing service to the public, reducing the hearings backlog, processing hundreds of thousands more claims, and improving 800-number wait times and busy signals. I am proud of what we have accomplished, and I want to thank each of you for your efforts that contributed to our success in FY 2009.

With our annual appropriation, we will continue to increase staffing in hearings offices and in the State Disability Determination Services (DDSs). This past year, we increased the number of field office staff, and our funding will allow us to maintain this level. In addition, Operations will receive some additional hires to expand Federal capacity to help the DDSs. Our FY 2010 hiring plans will ensure that we maintain the momentum we achieved in FY 2009.

However, as you all know only too well, we are still dealing with dramatically higher workloads caused by the recession. Even with the 10 percent increase in funding, it will be a challenge to keep the level of pending initial disability claims below one million in FY 2010. We will continue to need adequate and sustained funding in future years in order to achieve our goals of reducing the hearings and disability claims backlogs.

We obviously have many challenges ahead of us, but I am confident that we are up to the task. I will keep you posted on our progress throughout the year.

Michael J. Astrue

Commissioner