From Government Executive:
... In a letter to House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., O’Malley warned of dire consequences if SSA is flat-funded past September, as proposed in the House GOP’s six-month continuing resolution. House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday cancelled a planned vote on the measure, after dissent within his caucus threatened to derail its passage.
“If enacted, a six-month CR without any additional funding for the Social Security Administration would be devastating,” O’Malley wrote. “We would be forced to implement a hiring freeze with minimal exceptions. We would lose over 2,000 staff in the first half of the year alone and reach a new 50-year staffing low by the end of December. We would need to significantly reduce overtime to historically low levels, decreasing processing capacity for our most critical workloads.”
And in testimony before the Senate Budget Committee, O’Malley laid out how both the House and Senate funding proposals for SSA would fall short of the agency’s needs. Under the House plan, employees would be furloughed by 20 days, while the agency would see its headcount fall by 3,400 staff, not including the 1,500 decrease in staff at state Disability Determination Services offices. And funding for the agency’s IT infrastructure would be “barely” enough to “keep the lights on.” ...
13 comments:
I hope SSA employees take note of the 20 furloughed days that is being discussed if the CR is implemented without any amendments to the SSA budget. This is NOT a drill. Wall Street must be salivating at the prospect of privatizing Social Security with all the additional negative feedback that will eventually happen. Starving the beast has always been the game plan.
Exactly. What they are talking about is a 20 day administrative furlough, which is totally different from the shutdown furloughs of recent and past years. Under an administrative furlough the affected employees actually get laid off from work for that 20 days, unlike a shutdown furlough where the employees are forced to work without being paid until the budget impasse is resolved. I think the last time we actually saw administrative furloughs was back during the 90's and the Clinton/Gingrich standoff over the Contract With America legislation. It was the only time in my life that I ever filed an application for unemployment benefits.
Actually the long furlough in 1990's was November 14 through November 19, 1995, and from December 16, 1995, to January 6, 1996. I was working PC7 disability cases (BA) and Operations folks had to come in to work, while Systems folks were sent home. No one was guaranteed pay due to shutdown so many of us filed for unemployment (the union provided us with forms and instructions). No leave could be granted b/c leave is a paid event and mgt could not authorize pay, but a few called out sick anyway. Ironically, as soon as the furlough ended in January we were hit with a blizzard that shut-down the region for 2-3 days.
Reducing DDS employees would be devastating. It is already difficult enough now.
Many OHO offices with dwindling case loads already have sent AA's to details at DDS to assist. I'm sure we will send additional personnel to assist if necessary.
This whole budget thing is beyond exhausting every year. It’s especially absurd that after giving out tens of billions to Ukraine and Israel recently, that giving SSA an extra billion is like mission impossible. Congress is so broken.
SSA employees and the public like to complain but have they contacted their Congressional leaders and addressed the lack of funding issue at SSA? No games are won in the sidelines.
Well, I have.
Yup. Sent to my conservative senator. Asked if they knew about the operating budget shortfalls and staffing crisis. His response.... A generic yes we understand that SSA is about to be broke by 2035 and we want to ensure you that we will do everything we can to protect the people's benefits..... They don't even read into what we are saying when we write.
This is an extremely dire position, but one the Commissioner should have seen coming. How did he respond? By canceling telework for so many employees, opening new offices, and SPEND SPEND SPEND. Now we face a crippling budget shortfall and he responds by....putting out the hat for more money?
Oh I know, perhaps a few more videos will help!
Finally, a commissioner that is not afraid to point out the obvious. Too often recent commissioners have been pushovers. Hope that the public starts to listen and contacts Senators and Representatives.
Well looky here, 9:19, the Commissioner just released a brand new video about it this morning. No need for those employees to do actual work to help the agency; videos loved by employees (I’m sure) are far more vital!
Budget problem solved.
Ditto - Republican congressional response barely mentioned SSA, much less the budget or the Trust Fund.
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