Today is a month since President Obama was re-elected. He has not yet nominated anyone to replace Michael Astrue as Commissioner of Social Security. Astrue's term as Commissioner ends on January 19. Astrue does not continue in office until a successor is confirmed. Once his term ends, he's gone. His replacement is an Acting Commissioner.
Obama has been careful about his appointees. There have been remarkably few bad Obama appointees. However, the pace of Obama's appointments has been slow. At the moment, he's still deciding on his nominees for State and Defense for his next term. There's no telling when he'll announce a nominee for Commissioner of Social Security. After he announces a nomination, it will probably be a few months before the Senate takes action on the nomination -- and that's assuming the nomination is uncontroversial.
Yes, the President should focus on the head of SSA and not silly things like the budget cuts and Syria. The priorities are all screwed up.
ReplyDeleteSSA will survive without a commish, it has before and will again till appointed. Its simply not that important at this time.
Charles, you need to get your facts straight. Unless Astrue resigns on January 19th/20th, 2013, he will remain the Commissioner until his replacement is chosen. If he resigns, an Acting Commissioner will be appointed until a new Commissioner is appointed. Check out 42 USC 902(a)
ReplyDeleteI agree with Anonymous 4:02 p.m., based on a statement by Astrue in an interview, where he said that he was a "soft appointment", and would remain in the job until he is replaced.
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