From the continuing resolution funding the federal government until April:
I think we should also take this as a sign that Republicans in Congress have some level of concern that the GOP will now be blamed for backlogs at Social Security.
The fifth provision under the heading ‘Social Security Administration—Limitation on Administrative Expenses’ in division H of Public Law 114–113 shall be applied during the period covered by this Act by substituting ‘shall be used for activities to address the hearing backlog within the Office of Disability Adjudication and Review’ for ‘shall be for necessary expenses for the renovation and modernization of the Arthur J. Altmeyer Building’.To explain, P.L. 114-113 was the appropriations bill funding Social Security for the now ended fiscal year (FY) 2016. At the behest of former Senator Mikulski that bill contained $150 million for renovating Social Security's Altmeyer Building. Social Security had not asked for this and was apparently dismayed to have received it instead of a higher operating appropriation. I thought the amount was almost certainly excessive for the project. I'm pretty sure the renovation hasn't started so almost all of the $150 million should still be available. Social Security can now use that money to address the hearing backlog. It might have been better if the money could be used to address all backlogs at the agency but this is still good news.
I think we should also take this as a sign that Republicans in Congress have some level of concern that the GOP will now be blamed for backlogs at Social Security.
34 comments:
can be used for the backlog or must be used for the backlog now?
I like this move but I don't think they're concerned about the backlog they are more concerned with snazzy 150million dollar non military government buildings. How do you undermine an agency and its mission when you've just dumped 150M into upgrading its HQ.
You point to the snazzy building and say, "Look at the snazzy building they have as a HQ while people are dying in the streets waiting for the benefits they earned." and you ignore the fact that you gave them money for the building and not the backlog. You just keep spinning it and spinning it till it becomes truth. Then you gut the program like a fat salmon.
The current Administration has demonstrated through its actions its top priority is not reducing the backlog. If they were truly interested in immediately reducing the backlog, they would have had enough sense to reinstate the original STDP Senior Attorney Program, which had a statistical track record of successfully reducing the backlog, until TPTB began chipping off parts of the program to the bare bones skeleton it is today. Instead, this Administration thought it more advantageous to play with claimants lives hanging in the balance by proposing such initiatives as term limited ALJ's and the AJ Program, neither of which had potential of going anywhere fast, while Senior Attorneys in field offices could have immediately began reducing the backlog by simply reinstating the original STDP Senior Attorney Program. The actions of the current Administration in this regard alone reached the level of malfeasance once claimants awaiting hearings in the depth of the backlog began dying.
On top of this, the current Administration continued to push such other failed initiatives as unnecessarily detailed typed ALJ decision writing instructions, which are unduly burdensome and markedly slow production of ALJ's and Attorney decision writers. At the same time, this Administration persistently lowers workers morale by cracking the whip and insisting on unrealistic production quotas, particularly of ALJ's and Attorney decision writers. Despite repeated warnings by the AALJ Union and employee unions these production quotas are counter productive, this Administration obstinately refused to listen.
If nothing more, this actions taken by this Administration are the perfect example of everything NOT TO DO to efficiently run the disability components of SSA.
^^ says same thing over and over again. SAA isn't going to happen. SA can only pay people were republicans we don't want to pay people we want people to work. We want that labor participation rate that Hannity cites everyday to rise.
New congress could fix the backlog without hiring any new god forsaken federal employees. Do what USDA did. You exempt SSD hearings from some provisions of APA. You take all the existing attorney decision writers and make them AJs not ALJs. They issue a decision, you get to appeal it to the AC, the AC is final agency action then you go to real court. Its been done before.
New congress, I propose the Social Security Hearings Reorganization Act of 2017!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Appeals_Division
Ive been reading this blog everyday for over a year (first time posting) and I believe this is the first time Ive seen a hopeful and positive post. Yet, everyone seems to want to crap all over it...funny
It's a fairly depressing industry to work in on both the claimant and agency sides
@10:07
There is very little difference between the original STDP SA Program and your AJ Proposal. The point is the original STDP SA Program is still in place. In other words, TPTB could reinstate it immediately. The AJ proposal, which I do not disagree with, cannot be initiated easily, as we saw with the proposal earlier this year. Even if the hurdles can be overcome to start the AJ program, there will still likely be a learning curve, as there are not enough SA's to fill all the slots. Plus, the original STDP SA Program should remain in place once the AJ Program begins for expediting case processing.
Your "Republican" remarks about how Republicans disapprove of Social Safety Net Programs, including SSA DISABILITY, are outrageous. If you are an ALJ, or in Agency management, your decisions about how to run a Federal Agency such as SSA are NOT to be guided by political ideology. This is the problem the current Administration has running SSA, especially the disability components. You have allowed the Huntington debacle to impede your ability to operate the disability components of SSA. GRAB YOUR BALLS AND MOVE WITH WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE TO EFFECTIVELY AND EFFICIENTLY RUN SSA/ODAR.
Further, you should NOT be measuring ALJ Performance by the number of cases paid and denied, and then discipline, or try to Remove, or force the ALJ out if you believe the judge pays too many cases. This is what this Administration has been doing the past several years. I have witnessed it up close and personal, so do not insult readers of this blog by trying to deny this.
@10:07
Did it ever occur to you that I, and many other commenters on this blog, keep saying this over and over because we know from years (decades) of Agency experience, how successful the original STDP SA Program was at reducing the backlog, and how tremendously easy it would be for the Administration to reinstate it. Many of us have decades of experience with the Agency, on the line, in the field hearing offices. Yet, TPTB in Falls Church find the concept of employee engagement abhorrent. The truth is you cannot stand it when we make remarks about how to more efficiently run the Agency, even though many of us have many more years of Agency experience than what you have combined. As your comment illustrates, you ignore us; you talk over us; and you remain dead fast obstinate in pursuing your failed personnel policies and Agency initiatives, even though claimants awaiting hearings in the massive backlog are dying. The fact is you are more concerned with your own self interest in maintaining your bloated salaries and unearned bonuses, and covering up for powerful peers who engaged in misconduct and wrongdoing, than you are with reducing the backlog and effectively running the disability components of the Agency. My God, you people have got to go. The saving grace is knowing Congress may hold hearings in the near future and demand accountability.
I love it when people respond to their own posts!
It's "misconduct and wrongdoing" guy again! Always saying the same things, never any evidence.
mainly AJs could deny SA cant.
I'm jokingly referring to the problem from their mindset as evidenced by their public policy positions and statements.
Regarding the ALJ I'll go ahead and insult and deny it. Enlighten me, outline the circumstances. ALJs simply are not performance rated, they don't receive annual reviews and they have no boss. That's a fact. ALJs simply don't get removed for performance, its effective life tenure. In the extremely rare circumstance that an ALJ is removed by the MSPB its for conduct not performance like fighting an employee or being convicted of a felony. I still question this term force out, I don't know what it means. Prove it, cite the MSPB case. I want to see it.
@1:13
Never any evidence? Where in the he!! have you been? Idiot.
@1:20
This issue has been discussed in detail on this blog, as well. The evidence is rampant. In many situations, the ALJ was illegally forced out, retired and never filed a legal case. Blog readers will recall the ALJ who was so pressured by Garmon and his minions that he had a cardiac/stroke like event during a hearing, retired, and never returned to get his belongings. This ALJ never had a numbers problem, and his pay/deny rate never questionable. You want more evidence? Read the AALJ Newsletters from the past few years. You can do your own MSPB, EEOC, and Federal Court case research for more cases.
You guys who take pride in denying any of this happened, or demand case citations or individual names, are living in an alternate reality. Perhaps this is the only way you can live with yourselves. Do what you wish. The bottom line is all of this has and is happening and the responsibility falls on the heads of TPTB who protect and cover up for the wrongdoers. Remember, there are reasons why Colvin was never confirned or renominates to be SSA Commissioner, and she forced Eanes, the nominee in her stead, out after he had all but been confirmed. Colvin also diid this for reasons. All of this has already been discussed in detail on this blog. You can deny this all day long, but you do not get to create your own facts, or manipulate the truth.
so you reference an anecdotal story and a union newsletter. Guy probably had pre-existing medical issue. If I'm a judge why would I be stressed out by a manager when I know I'm untouchable. Its irrational. I mean its useless to bicker back and forth but I just don't believe it. The judges in my office do whatever they want.
2:42 PM. So you're saying that hundreds of ALJs have CHOSEN to reduce their approval rates at the same time and after the agency used Huntington to pressure the ALJs to reduce their rates? Right!! And that was after the SAA program ended, which cherry-picked the most obvious cases. This should have caused ALJS rates to go UP!!
10:07 AM. Republicans may WANT us to go back to work, but for many of us, that is really not an option. If I could still work, I'd be doing the job I was doing. I didn't apply because SSDI was AN option. It was the ONLY option!!! However, there are thousands with disabilities who COULD work if accommodated. Want more people to work! Accommodate them!!!
@2:42
The story I referenced is not anecdotal, but very real. The ALJ did not have a preexisting condition either. He also told me, and others, he had been repeatedly harassed by ROCALJ Garmon and local management over numbers and percentages of cases paid or denied. He is a personal friend. He was an Attorney and Supervisory Attorney before he became an ALJ. He never had a numbers problem, and his statistical pay and deny rates never raised eyebrows. What happened is this Administration went all looney toons after Huntington, and have allowed Republicans to get under their skin and unduly influence the disastrous way they have managed the Agency.
You must be very immature to believe ALJ's are untouchable. What this Administration did before a large crop of noticeably younger ALJ's were hired a couple of years ago, is subject certain targeted ALJ's to persistent, unrelenting harassment of numbers, pay rates, and anything else they could think of with the specific intent to force them to leave or retire. Many of those who could retire, did. However, they were not able to plan their retirement from a financial standpoint. They were forced out, i.e., work conditions made so intolerable they had no choice but to leave. Being forced out without an income for a long time until retirement paperwork could be completed and submitted caused many financial hardship.
Your callous rejection that this could happen at SSA/ODAR intimates you are one of the younger ALJ's, or more recent employee hire. Not only did this Administration subject numerous ALJ's to this unspeakable harassment, but they also targeted many good career Federal employees, and did the same thing to them. Do you have any conception how this affects an employee or ALJ who has given 20-30+ years of their lives working for SSA/ODAR, and the extreme financial hardship these individuals had to endure. The vast majority of the targeted ALJ's and employees were very good, if not exceptional, in the jobs they performed.
The deplorable conduct Agency management engaged over a period of several years is the epitome of Prohibited Personnel Practices. What's worse, is these powerful Agency officials tend to be less competent at their jobs, and promote like minded individuals into power management positions while those they target more often than not are the cream of the crop, talented employees.
Look back a couple of weeks ago on this blog to links of two TV News Reports about former Atlanta ROCALJ Garmon. When I watch that bloated, overweight man who subjected so many to the Prohibited Personnel Practices I have described act like he is better and more powerful than those interviewed, and believe he is entitled to relocate an ODAR hearings office near his home inconvenient to everyone but him, I cringe. He is disgusting. He deserves to be illegally forced out of his job into retirement the same horrendous way he has subjected so many others. When Colvin, et. al., inexplicably cover up and protect him from accountability, SSA/ODAR is engaged in Institutional/Organizational discrimination.
The SA program in our office is still going strong. Every week and almost every day I have one ask me (and the other ALJs) to approve one of the cases they have screened for a FF.
2:42 ( formerly known as SA27 - you know as well as I know that the 11Alive pieces were not only biased but parts fabricated. Someone on Peachtree in a wheelchair having to take public transit to Alpharetta? He would be served by Downtown Atlanta, not Atlanta North. Numbers produced is a big thing - but when you have 1 writer per judge, the judge needs 500 minimum cases produced per day but the writer is only required to do 1 a day... do the math. I am curious - how many grievances did you file in your 27 year career and how many did you win?
923 You do the math! It doesn't add up does it? We need more writers, not more judges. We need to have the SCTs better trained. We need to have our employees feel like they are contributing something instead of being either bashed for numbers which are unattainable in the environment that we work in or rewarded for being sycophants. Unless of course you do a sloppy job and have a judge who doesn't care, then high numbers are attainable. Most importantly we need a computer system that can actually handle the workload we need it to do. Our entire computer set up from purchasing to application performance is a big fat joke.
Instead of acknowledging the problems and possible solutions, the PTB have instituted wholesale changes to our regs that will result in more denials and have spent their resources hiring more ALJS instead of support staff to support the ALJs that we have. Their plan is to have the ALJs become as self-sufficient as possible. Good luck because a lot of them confuse A-L-J with G-O-D.
Total mismanagement that is going to end up with contracting out. Especially now.
Good luck everyone, you are going to need it.
Had some of my long time clients contact our severely right wing congressman for help with a social security claim. We got his hearing moved up based on dire need because the woman was living with her parents temporarily but he was living in his pickup. ALJ reviewed it and put him on shortly after we got hearing notice without a hearing. Head of our ODAR sent the letter to the congressman telling him the happy outcome. Talked to my clients about the experience and they were told by the congressional worker helping them that the congressman will not support any cuts or changes to the program, period. I know how politics works but found this interesting. There is a Bloomberg article from April, 2016 entitled something to the effect "Trump the candidate of disability country" out there about how all of those Trump red states are the heart of disability recipients to the chagrin of the Bloomberg writer who wants to alter the program. If Trump is a Trojan horse and a tool of Peterson and the Kochs who knew they couldn't elect a truth teller about cuts than anything can happen. However, if Trump is truly a populist leader of a movement that wants to get reelected the question is will he potentially cut his own political throat. Red state non-wealthy hate government benefits intensely except their own or their families. These people are not going away. What they would really like is a rule stating that lazy, undeserving minorities need not apply. They also are all under the notion that illegals somehow get their benefits. This will be very interesting if the program is attacked beacause it now runs broad and deep. When white red state America feels the pain they will not be happy and they are in the mood to raise a lot of hell.
@12:46
BRAVO! Spot on.
@9:23
You are the perfect representation of everything that is wrong with the Agency. Each and every remark you made is why the current Administration has driven the Agency into an unprecedented hole which will take years to recover. As long as the Agency continues to select individuals like you for power management positions, it will be doomed. The TV News Reports were not biased. To the contrary, they are 100% accurate. Garmon must be held fully accountable, and we will not rest until he is. HINT TO TPB: Illegally forcing him out of his job and career would be a good first start, although he must be held fully accountable, along with Colvin, e.t., a.l., who have thus far bent over backwards covering up and protecting him. This type of conduct is known as Institutional/Organizational discrimination, a hot issue in employment law. Heaven help this Agency if the likes of 9:23, Garmon, and Colvin, e.t. a.l., are not All removed. The swamp must be drained.
Jeez I'm starting to miss 100k guy and star chamber dude. They were mindlessly repetitve like sa27 but at least they were entertaining.
@9:11
The Senior Attorney Program you reference markedly differs from the original STDP SA Program which should be reinstated immediately to reduce the backlog. In the original STDP Program, SA's were treated as the Professionals they are. They did not have to an ALJ like a little kid to approve a Fully Favorable decision from a case they screened, or settled via conference with claimants legal counsel. They made their own decisions and signed them. Not treating employees, especially with the skill set of Attorneys, paternalistically, is something completely abhorrent to current Agency management. Under the STDP SA Program, SA's were able to order necessary CE''s and medical records, as well as prepare and submit VE and ME Interrogatories in cases they believed would result in a favorable decision with said testimony and/or medical evidence. Most SA's were in regular contact with claimants counsel as they held the case waiting on the evidence requested.
Current Agency management adheres to paternalistic management style, which went out with the stone ages. They are more concerned about monitoring employees every move, whether it be added in seats in the office, log in/ off times on laptops when on telework, monitoring keystrokes between each log on/off time, programming laptops so they will not operate after core work hours for employees with disabilities who have RA's, etc. Their management style is punishment oriented. They cannot stand employees with intuitive ideas about how to more efficiently run the Agency to speak up. If they chose to do so anyway, they are punished. You can see it right here on this board in the comments sections over and over. Their form of management is always their way or the highway. They have absolutely no respect for the dignity of their employees, especially those who have been great employees with the Agency for years. When some management nutcase suddenly decides to target that employee for no reason, the other Powers That Be cover up and protect them from accountability, and turn a deaf ear to the unspeakable harassment they know is happening. They must go ASAP.
@1:42
You have repetitively made this very same comment over and over, as well. At lest SA 27's comments are substantive and thought provoking. Yours on the other hand are not.
In regard to the backlogs. Had a female client of mine call last week to recently became homeless. We are now trying to get her dire need consideration. Really cold weather hit here last week with lows of 19 degrees. She attempted to spend the night in a trailer with no power. She became afraid she was going to freeze to death so went walking to a local shelter but all beds were full. She called me because she was afraid she was going to freeze to death before she gets help. We gave her every possible source we could think of for help including trying to go to hospitals and even fire stations. We will be at eleven below zero tonight. I seriously wonder how many people will die from exposure in my midwestern town tonight. I have not heard back from my client and hope she is okay. This is not acceptable in the wealthiest most technologically advanced country in history. Killing off and sqeezing the life out of our disabled and elderly will not make this a greater more civilized country. For a country with such deep Christian pretensions this is absolutely disgusting. We do not need to go looking for poverty and heartache because it is right here in America among us. This is not the great democracy I grew up in. Merry Christmas.
Its not a nice country. Capitalism is brutal and the country just categorically rejected a greater social safety net.
Regarding agency mgmt, sure the Garmon hearing office thing was terrible but notice the MSPB cites aren't coming in because they don't exist. Approval rates went down because the regs have gotten tougher the AC remands less and new judges were trained better and haven't realized that they are untouchable yet so they actually apply the regs and SSRs. Combined with a huge recession and a slew of people who just applied because they got laid off or can't do their old job anymore.
No one gets fired for paying too much and no one gets fired for not doing 500 a year, you simply cannot identify a circumstance, only the MSPB can remove an ALJ. The agency has to file charges and the MSPB has to sustain them. If you retired so be it. All you had to do was press the delete button on any emails you deemed herassing from mgmt.
Blanket allegations and conspiracy theories are not substantive. Hearing the same personal gripes is not thought provoking unless you count having the same thought over and over again.
Here's a thought. Sa27 believes it's just so easy to change operations and do things like the old days. But with 3 different unions to deal with, many things are practically impossible. Whatever the agency wants to do is stifled by these 3 unions all the time (as an employee I see it all the time). So until you all factor the unions into your proposals there really isn't much to talk about here.
@5:50
Boy, are you living in an alternate universe. You can deny until you are blue in the face that ALJ's and other SSA/ODAR employees are not being illegally forced out of their jobs with no real choice than retirement. In the law, as you should know, this type of conduct is known as constructive discharge. In my personal experience, with Garmon at the helm as ROCALJ, illegally forcing ALJ's and employees out of their jobs is his motifs operandi, or standard operating procedure. He avoids required civil service firing procedures by doing this. He is also well aware many targets will simply choose retirement because of the cost of litigation. He also banks on the fact anyone who initiates litigation will be drained financially because the Agency is willing to put countless attorneys and millions of taxpayer dollars on the line, in many cases for years and years, until they eventually force litigants from pursuing their rights in the courts because of the extreme cost. Other cases are quietly settled with terms not to be public ally disclosed. Thus, you are not going to see numerous case citations via MSPB, EEOC, or the Federal Courts. However, this in NO WAY MEANS THESE CASES DID NOT OCCUR. To the contrary, they are very real to each and everyone who was illegally forced out of their jobs by Agency management. In fact, the sheer numbers of ALJ's and good Federal career employees who were subjected to this reprehensible conduct by SSA/ODAR management is astonishing.
Your concept of avoiding harassment by simply deleting emails is beyond laughable. Neither ALJ's and SSA/ODAR employees can ethically evade management by directives by engaging in such conduct. To do so would be to sign your death warrant, employment wise. Further, the harassment many ALJ's and SSA/ODAR employees have been subjected transcends all bounds of decency and extends way beyond mere emails. The harassment many have been subjected to often occurs in and outside the office, and Garmon and Agency management are quite adept at having local managers recruit like minded employees to engage in harassing the target on their behalf. ALL SUCH CONDUCT IS ILLEGAL. Yet, that has NEVER stopped the likes of Garmon and his minions from engaging in such conduct for many years. SA 27 observed this happening years ago. A Petition to Remove corrupt managers engaged in such conduct signed by several ALJ's, former managers, and claimants counsel filed just shy of the roll out of HPI, was ignored by the Agency. That Petition included the Atlanta ROCALJ. Through the years, SA 27 would go on to watch her long time Agency Supervisory Attorney illegally forced out, and later experience the same type of unspeakable harassment in and outside the office herself. Yet, the Agency was put on notice about all of this before the roll out of HPI, and they not only turned a deaf ear to it, they encouraged such conduct, and as you have seen with Garmon, gone to great lengths to shield him from accountability. Unfortunately, this is NOT unique to the Atlanta Region, but common in ODAR hearing offices particularly, across the nation. It does not take a rocket scientist to see how this group of Agency management took control. They literally forced out the best and brightest over a period of several years, and promoted like minded subordinates whom they knew would massage their backs up through the ranks. This conduct is what led to the disasterous mess ODAR is in today. You have a dominant management team which began with a group of corrupt managers who forced out the best and brightest, and promoted like minded, less competent and corrupt managers over the years in charge of the Agency.
122
Please don't blame the Unions, that is an oldie but a goody on same list of top ten hits just like "do it right the first time". I guess just like fashion, all BHA/OHA/ODAR cliche's come back in fashion.
If current management chose to actually work with the Unions, things could go a whole lot differently. All the Unions want something that is not in conflict with the other two Unions, that is where the bargaining point should be and you negotiate outward from there.
Unfortunately, current management stonewalls, steamrolls, lies, hides the ball and is generally argumentative instead of working in a spirit of cooperation and doing what is best to move the Agency forward in a sustainable manner.
Then to top it off, when they do make a true statement they say, "in the interest of transparency". Really, so every other statement can be an Oscar worthy example of obfuscation but management claims they are working "in the interest of transparency" due to the very rare truthful statement, what a joke.
However, the reality is that it is going to get worse. Much worse under the buffoon-elect. If the current management regime is lucky enough to keep their jobs, well then, it will be a completely difference kettle of fish and they will unwittingly destroy the Agency in a power grab like never seen before. Then in the final coup de grace, they will also be shown the door.
@1:22
I do no see where you get "blanket allegations" and "conspiracy theories" from SA 27's actual experiences. Facts are facts, and everything she described occurred, much of it up close and personal. Once again, YOU DO NOT GET TO CREATE YOUR OWN FACTS, OR MANIPULATE THE TRUTH.
If anyone is delusional, out of touch with realty and guilty of "blanket allegations" and "conspiracy theories" it is you. There is no basis in FACT for any of your assertions.
I'm not pursuaded, absent medical issues retirement is always a choice. Just show up on time and do your job and your untouchable its not hard just don't talk to people you don't get along with.
I don't buy the lack of resources argument sure the agency has an employment law division in OGC but if your allegations are true rep yourself your a lawyer with decades of experience you can figure out how to write a pleading. The law is not that hard when the facts are overwhelmingly on your side.
Only a published opinion could substantiate your claims. It doesn't exist so its just speculation to anyone without first hand knowledge. More broadly, the type of widespread harassment and "forcing out" (which I still don't know what that means) would certainly be objectively verifiable somewhere. ALJs are never fired for performance and ODAR employees are only fired under egregious reasons. ALJs are asked to do more cases (remember its easier to pay than deny) but they are never reprimanded for number of cases or pay rate, does not happen. The most the agency can do to an ALJ is take away their telework, oh the horror.
@4:35
You are delusional. SA 27, and many others, have corroborated much of what has been discussed here. Your comments intimate you have not read much of this blog the past few years, are a management shill, or an all around a$$hole. Regardless, there is nothing anyone could say here which would change your obstinate denials. Your comments reveal you are not interested in meaningful dialogue, just berating anyone whose remarks differ from yours, which have no basis in reality or fact. It is uncanny how much your remarks parallel the failed management style of SSA/ ODAR, which is responsible for driving the Agency into an unprecedented hole. I will not debate, or try to engage in meaningful dialogue, with someone who professes a willingness to do so, but whose actions clearly show the direct opposite.
IDIOT don't you know that Colvin was see with Cardinal Richelieu plotting against the King!!! SSA managers, including the ones that directly oversaw this poor mistreated soul were also seen on a Grassy Knoll on a fateful Texas day. Deny if you will, but the Lindbergh Baby, fake Moon Landing, Bermuda Triangle, all, ALL have roots that can be traced back to SSA. If you knew anything at all you would know that SSA is run by the Reptilian Alien Overlords that have infiltrated us to weaken our resolve to fight.
@10:33
Delusional is apparently an understatement where you are concerned!
Post a Comment