David Black was nominated to be Associate Commissioner of Social Security by former President Trump and confirmed by a Republican controlled Senate. According to the statute, the Commissioner of Social Security is appointed to a six year term and can only be removed "pursuant to a finding by the President of neglect of duty or malfeasance in office." Whether that limitation on the President's powers is constitutional is another question but, unlike the Commissioner, the Deputy Commissioner enjoys no protection against being fired by the President for any reason or no reason. Why is David Black still on the job?
It's even worse - other than Mark Warshawsky, they haven't fired any of the non-career people that Trump put in there. They appear to just be ignoring SSA altogether.
ReplyDeleteIn the past, when the President's priorities didn't match up with the Administration's, they would appoint a Deputy Commissioner who would act as the Commissioner and sideline the actual Commissioner. There's nothing at all stopping them from doing this other than general lack of concern.
I am of the opinion that the Obama administration was not all that concerned about SSA. I fear that may be a similar mindset with this administration. Let it run on inertia. It is a hot button issue (third-rail and all that) that they don't want to wade into. Their priorities are elsewhere. They have no appetite expending any political energy on SSA so they will just let it alone.
ReplyDeleteI agree that President Obama wasn’t that concerned about SSA, but I’m not sure that it is due to its being a hot button issue. In this case, we aren’t talking about Social Security benefits - any change there has to come from Congress and then to the President. We are talking about Social Security employees and the horrible Contract foisted on them in 2019. I think Commissioner Saul feels relatively safe and therefore, unlike other Federal Agencies, he is dragging his feet on implementing the Executive Orders of President Biden, which reverse the Executive Orders of President Trump. It is no surprise that he would do that, of course, but it is frustrating to Federal Employee Unions, who had hoped for swifter changes froze the Biden Administration. I think President Biden should give a direct order to Saul to renegotiate the entire Contract, and if he drags his feet on that, fire him for neglect of duty. He could probably justify that anyway, given how many days Saul’s Skype account showed that he was not at work.
DeleteIn keeping with Trump ideology, these officials have not been quick to act on Biden’s labor & employee Executive Orders, not to mention many other things,
ReplyDeleteNo change of any real merit will occur until there is a generational change in leadership.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing that nothing has happened. In addition to two national unions, the House Progressive Caucus, the advocate community, and countless members of the public, the chairpersons of the following committees have all called for Saul and Black's ouster:
ReplyDeleteSS subcommittee, government oversight subcommittee, subcommittee on worker and family support, Senate subcommittee on SS and pensions, and Senate special committee on aging.
Yet nothing happens! Not even a reshuffling of SESers or anything.
That's pretty much every Congressional committee that oversees SSA. How can this be anything but dysfunctional?
Maybe we should all start tweeting "Social Security is infrastructure" so the White House will pay attention.
Psst-- If any of those Chairs of any of those committees were doing more than posturing/pandering, there would have been a hearing by now.
ReplyDeleteYeah, well it's pretty gross and shameless to continue on in a position when there are weekly calls from Congress to resign, but these are the people we are dealing with, including the previous Acting Commish and her former chief of staff, who are inexplicably still on staff.
DeleteWhy would he resign? If he can stay in, he can protect at least one part of
DeletePresident Trump’s legacy. I would do the same if I were in his shoes.
Maybe he's doing an adequate job.
ReplyDeleteFunniest joke I've heard in some time. Except for a few sycophants in upper management, nobody believes this.
DeleteHoping that Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown and Congressman John Larson calls for the ouster of both Black and Saul will produce results.
ReplyDeleteThis is especially important for the thousands of former clients of imprisoned attorney Eric Conn who continue to be under unrelenting attack by the SSA- despite the fact the SSA's tactics have repeatedly been declared unconstitutional by multiple federal courts.
Ned, I’m curious as to what tactics of SSA were found to be unconstitutional (I’m not disagreeing, I genuinely want to know). I’m a Union Officer who has been trying for years to get rid of the current management team in the Huntington OHO, because their actions to muzzle employees who speak out in regard to the ongoing attempts of management to sweep this thing under the rug. They believe that the employees who served as the sacrificial lambs in this have closed the door on the problem. They have not. I was denied whistleblower status by OIG. I cannot speak to how many claimants of Mr. Conn are actually disabled - I just don’t know - but they were treated unfairly, regardless.
DeleteThe truth of the matter is that Biden has far bigger problems to worry about, and they are named Manchin and Sinema.
ReplyDeleteManchin has made it perfectly clear that he isn't going to do or support anything that a Republican wouldn't, and Sinema isn't far behind him (she just luckily doesn't have to say or do much while leaving Manchin to take the heat). The two of them together have basically relegated Biden's presidency to lame duck status less than three months in. When the Republicans take back the House or the Senate in 2022 (or both, any of which could be very likely to happen), this will become a permanent state of affairs until the next Presidential election (when we have to deal yet with the useless Great Orange Turd).
Honestly, in the end I don't expect Biden to do anything more for Social Security than any of his Democratic predecessors did, which was basically squat (well, to be fair, Obama did throw more money at the agency, but he apparently didn't care what they did with it as long as he didn't have to worry about it). At least the Republicans are truthful about their intent to dismantle it -- the Democrats just trot it out as an issue when they need the votes, then proceed to ignore it once they get past the hump.
For whatever reason, it seems like SSA gets neglected. And, that is quite odd given that it affects so many people throughout the country. And, then folks wonder why the service is so poor and nothing ever seems to change with that agency for the better. Truly sad.
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