The House Ways and Means Committee has scheduled two hearings for Wednesday, September 6. One definitely has to do with Social Security. The other may touch on Social Security.
First, at 10:00, the Social Security Subcommittee will hold a hearing on disability determination at Social Security. The announcement focuses on how long it takes for the agency to process cases. The Subcommittee wants to know what plan the agency has for doing something about the backlogs. That's rich since the overwhelming cause of the backlogs is inadequate administrative funding. That's controlled by Congress. Of lesser importance is the agency's reluctance to allow senior attorneys to approve some very strong disability claims after a request for hearing is filed. This reluctance also seems to be related to the atmosphere created by Republicans in Congress who seem to regard disability claims and claimants with suspicion if not hostility.
At 2:00 the Human Resources Subcommittee will hold a hearing on Missing from the Labor Force: Examining Declining Employment among Working-Age Men. I haven't been able to find a full announcement on this hearing. In the past, Republicans have favored the argument that the declining employment to people going on Social Security disability benefits. However, recent research makes that argument look very weak.
Same old s!@#.
ReplyDeleteSSA testimony will be: Blah, blah, blah, we are working with the latest greatest data to make sure that our resources are deployed as efficiently as possible. We are grateful for the funding that we receive, but every year we have more to do blah, blah, blah. We are doing X, Y, and Z to make sure that the citizens affected by the devastating flood in Texas receive the best service possible.
The R's will harp about wait times and return to work, but nothing will result. Old Sam and his crew don't have a clue about how or the desire to do anything meaningful.
Does anyone have the guts to stand before that Committee, point a finger at them, and say that they are the single largest reason for the backlog, due to their inadequate funding of SSA administrative costs? If I recall correctly, SSA has sent Congress proposed budgets every year in recent memory, projecting how administrative funding would impact the backlog. Congress underfunded it, and surprise, the proposed budgets fairly accurately predicted the effects on the backlog. Yes, there are other factors, but they are drops in the proverbial bucket that is mostly filled by Congress' failure to address this well-known problem. If the Committee members gave a damn about the backlog they would looking and fighting for more administrative funding instead of having this Committee hearing.
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ReplyDeleteColvin stood before Congress and said that the agency could no longer do more with less and was forced to do less with less. It was a brave statement, but this blog gives her little credit, only complaints.
Ms. Colvin is not alone. SSA Commissioners starting with Barnhart have all flat out told Congress that you get less with less. Republicans will argue that in dollar terms SSA's appropriation has gone up over the years, but they ignore the fact that given SSA's mission the relatively small increases are insufficient to process SSA's enormous workloads. They should all watch the movie about the early days of the American space program, The Right Stuff, to hear my all time favorite line relating to government spending. "No bucks, no Buck Rogers." (For you younger folk, the Adventures of Buck Rogers was the story, written in the 1930s, of a fictional futuristic space traveler.}
ReplyDeleteRep. Mike Kelly union bashing is outrageous. It must be easy to spout nonsense when you are born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Union's aren't the problem, the problem is Congress's failure to properly fund SSA.
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