A Time To Remember: Social Security In The Aftermath Of The 9/11 Attacks

From the testimony of Larry Massinari, then Commissioner of Social Security before the House Social Security Subcommittee on November 1, 2001:

In the aftermath of the attacks, SSA [Social Security Administration] took immediate steps to ensure that we stayed open for business, for routine business as well as for those who lost family members or were injured that day. All Social Security offices in New York City and the Washington D.C. area were immediately closed on September 11 to protect both the public and our employees, while SSA assessed the severity of the situation and the need for increased security.

The next day, all Social Security offices and the national 800 number were open, with the exception of field offices in New York City, the Northeastern Program Service Center in Jamaica, and the hearing office and the Disability Determination Services (DDS) office in lower Manhattan. The New York Regional Office also remained closed, but we opened a command center in the Grand Central field office. All of our offices-except for those in lower Manhattan-reopened on September 13. We redeployed employees from the closed offices to offices that were open.

We immediately worked with the Treasury Department and the Postal Service to make sure that, where normal processes remained in place, benefit checks and electronic funds transfer payments continued to be sent. Where service was disrupted, we tried to find ways to mitigate delays. ...

By September 24, all of our offices were open, with the exception of the Manhattan DDS, which had been located near the World Trade Center. Some of the DDS staff is being temporarily housed in the Northeastern Program Service Center in Jamaica. Others have been sent to work in other offices.

All 15,000 claims that had been pending in the DDS were removed from the building and sent to a contractor for cleaning and decontamination. All cases have been cleaned and sent back to the DDS. The DDS personnel are in the process of recontacting claimants to update the medical evidence and explain the delay in processing.

I would add that Social Security never stopped opening its mail despite a serious threat of a mail-borne anthrax attack. I know that the Department of Justice and many other agencies did stop opening their mail for a considerable time. I have always thought that those Social Security employees involved in opening and distributing the mail never got the recognition they deserved.

Update: The photo that I had posted earlier that appeared to be the dead body of Bin Laden turned out to have been a hoax.