From Government Executive:
A Social Security Administration office tasked with resolving beneficiary issues brought to its attention by federal legislators has shrunk from about 50 employees to as few as three, according to an agency employee.
In addition to constituent casework, employees in SSA’s Office of Legislation and Congressional Affairs provide technical assistance to lawmaker offices when developing Social Security legislation and answer questions from Capitol Hill staffers, among other legislative and regulatory responsibilities. …
[After recent cuts] OLCA was left with just three staffers, two of whom were brought over from a different office. …
SSA did move a congressional casework team to a different component and remaining OLCA staffers have been instructed to contact other offices to help with their responsibilities, according to the employee. …
[An] employee said that some OLCA staffers were asked to return, potentially increasing the number of workers in the office …
9 comments:
I would gut the whole thing. Congress has left this Agency out to dry for so long, I really could care less about their complaints.
Finally, someone spoke up for the American Public ....
It's like being in a bad relationship, get out, please come back.
We've received far fewer Congressionals since January in our field office than we used to. We had a CSR come to us once saying they had a Congressional staffer cold-calling out general inquiry line about a case, which.....lol. If the communications pathways that had long been in place for this kind of work are that broken, to where they're sitting on hold for 2 hours to get an answer, I can't help but laugh.
This is what smaller government looks like, people.
These administration has unlimited material! 🤣
A spokesperson said that Social Security's congressional affairs says work is continuing in offices across the agency.
Is this comment referencing the current administration or the plight of SSA employees training.
“It’s a s— sandwich, and we're eating it,” they said. “You have all these really inexperienced people who were doing other work effectively now doing disability adjudications.”
Would the quote brevity is the soul of wit apply in this situation?
The former OLCA employee is now working in disability adjudication, which handles eligibility determinations for SSA disability benefits. The employee said that they’re “overwhelmed” because the reassigned employees were provided with seven weeks of training instead of the usual six months.
Congress is not a huge priority for this administration, so this seems about right. Kudos to Gov exec for a good article though. The whole “what’s the point” attitude is not limited to just this
A toxic relationship for sure!
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