You may have noticed that I'm not posting much recently. That doesn't have to do with me. There is little to report. Things aren't changing for good or ill. Some of this is Congress. They're doing little with Social Security. Oversight hearings seem to be nearly a thing of the past. There's no hope of passing Social Security legislation. Some of it may be due to lingering effects of the pandemic. Until recently, there was little time to develop new policies for anything other than coping with Covid. Policy development was and is difficult anyway with people working from home most of the time. However, I think a lot of the torpor at Social Security has to do with the fact that there's no confirmed Commissioner of Social Security. An Acting Commissioner can't lead in the same way that a confirmed Commissioner can. Yes, there's a real potential for bad new policies as well as good with a confirmed Commissioner but sitting dead in the water for years on end isn't good for the agency or the people it serves. The lack of action on an occupational information system is one prominent example of the lack of leadership at Social Security.
So, why hasn't the President nominated a new Commissioner?
8 comments:
Because he doesn’t care? It’s obviously not a priority.
A lot of the work being done involves trying to figure out how to hire enough workers to do the work in a way that won’t require any real efforts to improve morale or at least stop treating existing staff like rubbish and recognize their basic humanity. As you might guess, this has proven quite perplexing and difficult.
The President hasn't nominated a Commissioner because it allows him to keep Kijakazi as Acting for the rest of the term. The President hasn't nominated Kijakazi or someone else because Saul’s six-year term was supposed to last until January 2025. Republicans won't confirm a new six-year term when the Republican incumbent was questionablly-unconstituionally removed from office. To think Obama didn't care about SSA... Biden is giving him a run for his money.
Slow policy development has nothing to do with employees working from home.
Because "political capital" is a real thing in their mind, and they're unwilling to spend a penny of it on SSA.
Bingo. And any misguided people thinking that a push for more in-office time will help things should read this: https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2023/04/union-warns-social-security-service-spiral-without-major-changes/385013/
Why is the “go to” excuse for any ssa problems blamed on telework. Those are the only days most of us are able to catch up on backlogs without constant interruptions from other coworkers. Those who do their job, do it every day regardless of working location. The people who slack on telework days are the same folks who do little in the office also. Some of you have never worked in the field office and it shows.
Who would take the job? Really? It is one of the worst jobs in government.
No control really, Congress makes the rules, you are just a puppet and the person everyone points at and complains about.
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