I've posted here that Social Security will be unaffected by the partial government shutdown. It occurs to me that I may have been overbroad. The problem is building security. That's mostly provided by the Federal Protective Service (FPS), which is part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and DHS is part of the shutdown. The FPS security guards at Social Security offices missed a paycheck today. They'll miss another in another two weeks. They're not going to continue working forever for free. Also, there are some Social Security offices that are located inside federal courthouses. While FPS may provide security guards within the Social Security offices inside federal courthouses, the U.S. Marshall Service provides security at the building entrances. The U.S. Marshall Service is part of the Department of Justice and it, too, is part of the partial government shutdown. The federal courts themselves are also part of the government shutdown and will close for routine business a week from today. Will the U.S. Marshall Service continue to provide building security for federal courthouses when the courts, themselves, are closed, especially given that the Marshall's Service has more urgent tasks to complete?
7 comments:
Good point. It will be a trickle down or snowball effect.
For example in Long Beach, CA. The OHO is located in a federal building with an IRS office and ICE headquarters. Very strict security. It literally is the tightest security check I have experienced in the world and I have travelled abroad a lot. They had an ICE officer go postal and shoot people there about 10 years or so ago. But this week, the security guards were working. What about next week?
However, that is the only office I could see affected in the entire SoCal area.
But I believe the biggest snowball effect to SSA is basically workplace attrition. SSA employees will quit, retire, or may be get ill. I assume the federal furlough will delay in hiring more candidates. This will create an already horrific backlog even worse (especially for writing decisions).
So current SSD/SSI claimants better hope no writing attorney quits their job soon or the decisions will take forever to get written up.
I've worked in three different ODAR/OHO offices and security was provided by private contractors in all three. FPS would come in and check them over from time to time but none used FPS officers.
When I worked in Woodlawn, FPS had a post and a few uniformed officers but 90% of the security people were private contractors. Not sure of the hierarchy of control (was FPS the group that oversees the contractors on behalf of SSA or was it the security staff in what was then DCBFM) with FPS providing the official "police" presence and powers that the contractors didn't have? But the point was that the gates and entrances were not FPS but private.
A 4:45pm You raise a good point about SSA employees quitting/retiring. But I have read that OPM personnel are on furlough and not processing any retirement papers. So Federal employees cannot even officially leave the job, nor get their retirement! What a mess. I can only hope that all those folks who want "smaller government" learn from this.
It depends. The Federal police under DHS won't get paid but they will probably still have to work. If security is provided by private contractors, it may depend upon which agency is funding the contract. If SSA is funding then no problem but if GSA is funding it may depend on GSA, or whatever other agency, is funded.
For the sake of accuracy, it's "U.S. Marshal Service" (one L). I never understood why, and it certainly does not affect the substance of your post.
My understanding is SSA procures guard service through DHS, much as it procures facilities services through GSA, but SSA pays for the service. Hopefully this means, at least in private space, guards will get paid and will continue to serve, just as SSA payroll checks continue because SSA funds the processing by Interior.
Anon 11:06
Great point. Those thinking about retiring in January or February apparently will have to hold on to get their pensions. This shutdown is just a mess and the SSA and claimants will feel the effect.
And somehow, I believe it will affect every state's DDS somehow based on the simple fact of keeping the buildings working.
Trump created this snowball. And it is rolling downhill. Everybody associated with the sorry U.S. Federal government will be caught up in the roll.
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