GAO Report On ALJs

From Results-Oriented Cultures: Office of Personnel Management Should Review Administrative Law Judge Program to Improve Hiring and Performance Management, a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO):

SSA [Social Security Administration] and HHS [Department of Health and Human Services] officials responsible for hiring new ALJs reported they were satisfied with the quality of the judges hired from OPM’s [Office of Personnel Management's] ALJ [Administrative Law Judge] register of qualified candidates in 2008. Despite their satisfaction with these ALJ candidates, agency officials raised several issues regarding ALJ hiring and offered suggestions to improve the process, including (1) opening the OPM registry to accept new candidates more frequently, (2) giving greater consideration to agency-specific knowledge and experience, and (3) providing additional agency flexibility in meeting the procedural requirements associated with selecting from the three best qualified candidates and awarding veterans’ preference. OPM officials reported they are working to address these issues and develop new approaches, where appropriate. ...

To safeguard the independence of ALJ decisionmaking, ALJ agencies are prohibited from rating or tying an ALJ’s compensation to their performance. Nevertheless, SSA and HHS officials reported using numerous other practices to manage ALJ performance. ALJ association officials were concerned some SSA performance management practices could affect ALJs’ decisional independence.