Senate Appropriations Hearing Set For March 9

The Senate Appropriations Committee has scheduled a hearing for March 9 at 9:30 a.m. on funding for the Social Security Administration for this fiscal year and the next. The following witnesses are scheduled to testify:

• Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security
• W. Lee Hammond, President, American Association of Retired Persons (AARP)
• Marty Ford, Co-Chair, Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities Task Force on Social Security Acting Director, The Arc (formerly called the Association for Retarded Citizens) and United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) Disability Policy Collaboration
• Joe Dirago, President, National Council of Social Security Management Associations, Newburgh, New York

Will the House Appropriations Committee hold a hearing on Social Security appropriations for this year or the next? That would give a Republican Commissioner of Social Security the opportunity to tell House Republicans that the budgets they are proposing would wreak havoc at Social Security. That would be interesting.