Another Great Victory For DOGE: Acting COSS Resigns

      From the Washington Post:

The acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration left her job this weekend after a clash with billionaire Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service over its attempts to access sensitive government records, three people familiar with her departure said Monday.
Michelle King, who spent several decades at the agency before being named its acting commissioner last month, left her position Sunday after the disagreement, the people said.
President Donald Trump appointed Leland Dudek, a manager in charge of Social Security’s anti-fraud office, as acting commissioner … 

In selecting Dudek, Trump bypassed dozens of other senior executives who sat higher on the agency’s leadership hierarchy, touching off alarm in and around the agency, which has already faced years of budget and staffing difficulties. …

     According to the New York Times “Before he was named, Mr. Dudek posted comments on LinkedIn praising Mr. Musk’s team and saying he had been assisting its efforts, according to people who saw his posts. Mr. Dudek has deleted his account.“ comments on LinkedIn praising Mr. Musk’s team and saying he hYou thought I was joking when I said that some high Social Security officials would face horrible decisions during the Trump Administration. 

Yeah, Right

 

     Did Musk receive some distorted information about dependent benefits? Yes, multiple people can receive benefits on one Social Security number. It’s all quite legal.

Musk’s Campaign Against Social Security

      Elon Musk, who has been granted sweeping powers by President Trump, has been making extravagant claims about the existence of massive fraud at the Social Security Administration. Supposedly millions of people are being paid benefits improperly. Trillions of dollars are being stolen. I could go through the various allegations he is making and show why they’re false but it’s pointless. The readers of this blog  already know there is no substance to any of this. None. Besides, by tomorrow there will be new tall tales.

     I can’t figure out what Musk’s game is. Does he really believe this nonsense? Is he spreading lies because he wants to destabilize Social Security? Is he trying to prepare the political landscape for some massive change in Social Security? What happens when Musk’s DOGE minions are unable to find any fraud beyond one man who buried his mother in his backyard so he could continue to receive her Social Security benefits?

     Whatever Musk’s game may be, he’s causing lasting damage. Credulous people will continue to believe his fairy tales for decades to come. It’s depressing.

Rally Against Musk Cuts

      From The Hill:

Democrats rallied against billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk,who also heads up President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), outside the Social Security Administration’s headquarters in Baltimore.

Democrats from both chambers gathered to sound alarm after a judge temporarily blocked Musk and DOGE personnel from gaining access to the Treasury Department’s sensitive payment system. …

Among those in attendance at the demonstration included Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) and Democratic Maryland Reps. Kweisi Mfume (D), Johnny Olszewski and Sarah Elfreth. Martin O’Malley, the former Baltimore mayor, Maryland governor and Social Security commissioner, also spoke at the event. …

DOGE Coming To SSA

      From Semafor:

… The Social Security Administration is an upcoming focus of the Department of Government Efficiency, a source with knowledge of its work told Semafor, and one person involved in DOGE is currently preparing to work with the agency that provides benefits to the elderly and disabled. … 

DOGE’s basic plan, already in progress at certain agencies, includes asking government managers to help create a plan for workforce reductions, reorganization of divisions — and, if necessary, shutdown of certain areas, one of the three people said.

The shutdown targets are likely to include regional offices seen by DOGE as archaic and wasteful, as well as the sale or other elimination of some properties the government owns. …

How Many Remember This?

 

    After Donald Trump’s first inauguration, things were a bit disorganized at the White House, so disorganized that it took nine months before Social Security offices displayed his portrait. MAGA types were quick to blame the dastardly Deep State for this indignity but the explanation was far simpler. The White House hadn’t given the General Services Administration an approved portrait for reproduction. The Trump White House may have had little idea what the GSA does. In case you don’t know, the GSA takes care of a lot of housekeeping for federal agencies such as leasing office space, buying office supplies and printing and distributing official Presidential portraits to hang in federal offices.

     Let’s keep an eye on how quickly Social Security offices display Trump’s portrait. It will be something of an indicator of how efficiently or inefficiently the Trump II White House is functioning.

New Acting Commissioner

     Social Security’s organization chart now shows Michelle King as Acting Commissioner.

Good Luck Implementing This

      From the New York Times:

The U.S. government will no longer recognize the citizenship of children born in the United States to immigrants who lack legal status, one of 10 immigration-related executive orders President-elect Donald Trump plans to sign Monday, an incoming administration official told reporters. 

     I can think of no immediate way to implement this other than by refusing to issue Social Security numbers to the children of those who lack legal status. Of course, Trump and his aides may not have thought that far ahead.

     This is blatantly unconstitutional. 

Maybe The Original Change In The Listing Was A Bad Idea

     From a notice published in the Federal Register today:

We are extending the flexibility in the “close proximity of time” standard, as defined in two prior temporary final rules (TFR), through May 11, 2029. We issued a TFR providing the “close proximity of time” flexibility on July 23, 2021, because the COVID-19 national public health emergency (PHE) caused many individuals to experience barriers that prevented them from timely accessing in-person healthcare. On September 29, 2023, we extended the flexibility to evaluate evolving healthcare practices and consumption in a post-PHE environment. We determined that we need additional time to fully evaluate still-evolving healthcare practices after the PHE. We are therefore issuing this TFR to extend the “close proximity of time” flexibility until May 11, 2029, so we can continue to evaluate changes in healthcare practices and determine the proper “close proximity of time” standard for the musculoskeletal disorders listings.

    Let me check. I don't think Trump will still be President on May 11, 2029, assuming we follow the Constitution, which may be an uncertain thing.

Watch Out

 

   Despite specific language in the 14th Amendment making anyone born in the United States a U.S. citizen, the incoming Trump Administration seems determined to try to deny citizenship to those born in the U.S. to parents who were not in the U.S. legally. One crucial way of doing this would be to refuse to issue Social Security numbers to children whose parents aren't in the U.S. legally.

    I think it would be a big job to investigate the immigration/citizenship status of the parents of every baby born in the U.S. The Social Security Administration isn't ready for such a task. The public isn't ready for the delays that would be associated with this. Still, watch out. This could be coming as early as January 21, 2025.

What If?

     It's unlikely to happen but let's say that just before Inauguration Day, the Social Security Administration finally releases its new occupational information system and let's say it shows no unskilled, sedentary jobs. People would reasonably ask why it wasn't released earlier but, still, this would be a nice bomb for the Biden Administration to leave behind for a new Commissioner.

    As I say, it's unlikely to happen but a guy can have dreams.

Does Frank Bisignano Realize What He's Gotten Himself Into?

     I'm surprised that Frank Bisignano wants the job as Social Security Commissioner. He's now the highly paid CEO of a very successful corporation. It's his niche and apparently he's very good at it. Is he aware of the problems he'll face at Social Security?

• If he thinks he'll lead Social Security out of its long term financing problems, he's deluded. Senators of both parties will demand that he promise that he will stay completely away from long term financing issues. He can't be confirmed without making such promises. For that matter, I'm pretty sure that Trump would want him to stay away from such issues. Also, if he actually looks into the political thicket surrounding it, he'll want nothing to do with Social Security "reform." Let Elon Musk take that bullet.
  
• If he thinks he can in any sense "transform" Social Security, he's deluded. There's no simple fix, technical or otherwise, for Social Security's service delivery problems. There's not even a complicated set of fixes that don't take a lot of money and time. It's highly unlikely that he'll get more money.
• If he thinks that he'll have an advantage because he knows nothing about Social Security and won't be held back by old ideas, he's deluded. In any job, it helps to know how things are already set up, what the obstacles to change are, and what ideas have been tried before and how they worked out. The people who came before you weren't fools (except for Jo Anne Barnhart). Social Security isn't a Gordian knot and Bisignano won’t have have a sword.
  
• If he thinks that the real problem at Social Security is that federal employees are stupid and lazy, he's deluded. That sort of arrogance would lead to indifference, if not joy, in losing the experienced, hard-working employees who keep the Social Security Administration afloat. Not every agency employee is a star but they mostly do their jobs ably. There just aren't enough of them.
  
• If he thinks that ending telework will make Social Security significantly more effective, he's deluded. I've been around long enough to know that telework makes little, if any, difference. If telework ends, some percentage of employees will quit. My guess is that it won't be that high a percentage but that's just a guess. Nobody knows. Losing even a few experienced people will hurt an agency that's as bad off as the Social Security Administration. The commonly held view that Social Security is simple is simply wrong. For example, there's not just one type of Social Security disability benefit. Depending upon how you count them, there are as many as seven (remember that blindness is a separate category under both Title II and Title XVI)! And don't get him started on the windfall offset! It'll blow his mind. It takes long training and considerable experience for an employee to become competent.
  
• If he thinks he can transform the Social Security Administration with new IT, he's deluded. When the companies that Gisignano has led have needed to spend money to acquire new IT systems, all he's had to do was to convince a complaisant board of directors to approve the money. The money was available since the companies were profitable. The situation at Social Security is entirely different. Convincing the White House to approve additional funding will be hard enough. Convincing Congress is much more difficult. Martin O'Malley is a born lobbyist. How far did he get? Is Gisignano any kind of lobbyist?
• If he thinks that fighting employee unions will make the Social Security Administration more effective, he's deluded. The unions can be a pain in the neck but they have just about no effect on productivity. Spending energy fighting them isn't worth it. They're not the enemy.
  

Bisignano Nominated To Become Commissioner

     From USA Today:

President-elect Donald Trump said he's nominating financial services CEO Frank Bisignano to serve as commissioner of the Social Security Administration. ...

Bisignano currently leads the financial services and payments giant Fiserv, one of the largest financial software companies in the country.

He’s previously held executive leadership positions at major banks including JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup.  ...

    From Wikipedia:

... Under Bisignano's tenure, hundreds of First Data and FiServ locations have closed, resulting in the termination of thousands of employees. Employees who previously had remote positions due to the COVID-19 pandemic or other legacy reasons have reportedly been particularly targeted. ...

What About NTEU And ALJ Unions?

    The Biden Administration signed contracts with the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) to lock in telework at Social Security until 2029 but there are at least two other, smaller employee unions at Social Security -- the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) and the ALJ union. What's with them? Do they have new, unannounced contracts or were they just already protected?

One Thing About Carolyn Colvin

     Let's say that someone other than Carolyn Colvin had been made the Acting Commissioner of Social Security and let's say it's a career employee in his or her prime working years. Let's also say that the Trump Administration decides a priori that Social Security will do just fine with a 20% reduction in staffing. That Acting Commissioner would face a dilemma. The person could forcefully resist internally in which case that person would probably be fired and their federal career would be at an end. That person could quit in protest in which case their federal career would also be at an end. That's tough on a person with a mortgage and kids in or near college.

    At her age, Colvin can easily resign in protest. She has no reason to worry about her federal career. She can court firing or quit without concern. If she leaves, she can be very noisy about it. This gives her a certain power that others, younger than her, don't have.

    By the way, if you're someone in line to succeed Colvin, what would you do as Acting Commissioner if the Trump Administration orders up something that you know will have disastrous effects? Would you have the courage to resign in protest? Would you be willing to preside over a disastrous situation? Is there some way of squirming out of the dilemma? These may not be abstract questions for a handful of people at Social Security.

Carolyn Colvin To Be ACOSS

 

    The National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) is reporting that Carolyn Colvin will once again serve as Acting Commissioner Of Social Security (ACOSS). She had served previously in that role from 2013-17.

    Of course, the incoming Trump Administration can designate someone else for the acting position or can quickly nominate someone to be the confirmed Commissioner of Social Security.

    Also, of course, Colvin isn't obligated to hang around if she is ordered to make layoffs that would have a disastrous effect on the agency.

Andrew Saul Sounds Bitter

      From a piece by former Social Security Commissioner Andrew Saul for Townhall.com, a right wing website:

Even though my time as the Social Security Administration (SSA) commissioner has ended, the partisan attacks on the agency and my record have not. Just this week, U.S. Reps. John Larson (D-CT) and Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) continued to repeat false claims about my tenure as SSA commissioner. ...

On April 21, 2021, I sent a letter to Rep. Larson outlining the need for additional  funding to make up for the budgetary and workforce challenges SSA was facing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rep. Larson and the House of Representatives ignored this request and as a result, SSA was forced to operate on a budget that was $900 million less than I requested.  ...

The only solution to addressing the backlogs of unprocessed mail and other SSA services was to bring SSA workers back to the office. SSA informed Larson and his staff in August of 2020 we needed to start bringing union employees back to the offices involuntarily, but safely, to address workloads that couldn’t be done virtually, such as mail. Despite our warnings, on February 11, 2021, Rep. Larson and his staff objected to our putting a handful of employees in an office in Houston, Texas, to address problems similar to those noted in the recent SSA Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report. Rep. Larson insisted I call him, despite the fact he refused to take my calls when I was seeking assistance in funding. ...

It is hypocritical that Rep. Larson now faults me for backlogged workloads when he and his union bosses at SSA stymied my efforts to address these challenges.  ...

My office briefed Larson’s staff multiple times a week throughout the pandemic. If he had concerns with our response to the pandemic, he should have raised these issues to my attention or even offered to work with me to solve problems. His response then, as it is now, was to engage in political grandstanding and take his direction from the unions. Rep. Larson was the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Social Security the entire time I served as SSA commissioner. If he was so concerned about my management, why didn’t he hold an oversight hearing to address his concerns? He failed to hold a single hearing on the service challenges facing SSA. One might think he was negligent in his duties as Chairman and should resign, but I know he was afraid to allow real facts to come forward. For instance, he avoided my calls when I sought his support for funding and to get cooperation from unions. Rather than conduct meaningful oversight, Rep. Larson prefers to hide behind union talking points and issue uncontested press releases full of lies.

     Blaming Larson for Social Security's operating budget is mostly ridiculous. Larson isn't even a member of the Appropriations Committee that has jurisdiction over the agency's operating budget. The real problem was primarily in the Senate which was then controlled by Republicans. However, it is possible that if Larson had held hearings about Social Security's service delivery problems that the agency's appropriation might have been increased.

     By the way, why is Saul only now admitting that his agency was unable to provide adequate service and that the agency's operating budget was the main reason? I know that insulting people you need to work with isn't a good plan but being completely quiet in public about a severely inadequate agency budget isn't such a good plan either.

     Also, by the way, I'm glad that Saul is no longer making any effort to obscure the obvious -- he's a highly partisan Republican. That's how he ran the agency. That's why he had to be fired. He never should have tried to hang on after Inauguration Day.

AAJ Hearings To Remain A Possibility As CRA Resolution Fails

      In the twilight days of the Trump Administration, Social Security adopted new regulations allowing Administrative Appeals Judges (AAJs) to hold hearings on disability claims. Previously, only Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) were able to hold such hearings. AAJs have only handled cases pending on review at the Appeals Council. This has been concerning since AAJs, unlike ALJs, have not been thought to enjoy decisional independence.

     The Congressional Review Act (CRA) permits Congress to disapprove "midnight" regulations adopted as an Administration is leaving office. CRA resolutions may not be filibustered. A CRA resolution was introduced to disapprove the AAJs regulations. The problem with CRA resolutions is that they must be acted upon within a certain number of days. The computation of when the days start to run is a little tricky but, apparently, the time ran out yesterday but no action was taken on the CRA resolution on the AAJ regulations.

     I would be surprised to see any AAJ hearings scheduled in the near future. There's no plausible justification since there are enough ALJs to handle the current workload and Democrats control the White House, Senate and House of Representatives. Further out, who knows?

One Week Until New Musculoskeletal Listings Take Effect

      Unless something happens in the meantime to delay or prevent it, Social Security's new musculoskeletal Listings go into effect a week from today. If you haven't read them, they're more extreme than you can probably imagine. I've reproduced the Listings changes below -- just the Listings without the lengthy preambles. Judge for yourself. My opinion is that the public isn't going to be happy with these and that the current Presidential Administration will be blamed, which is exactly what was planned, I imagine. These certainly weren't rushed out while there was a Republican President. Click on each thumbnail to view full size.

More On The Efforts To Oust Saul

      From Yahoo News:

... According to two inspector general complaints filed in January of this year and reviewed by Yahoo News, an administrative law judge claimed that Saul, Black and their deputies put “illegitimate political pressure on Administrative Law Judges to reduce the rate of Social Security disability case approval.”

The whistleblower said the complaints were initially acknowledged by the inspector general, but they have yet to receive any further communication.

The SSA Office of the Inspector General did not immediately return a request for comment. ...

The complaints detail an example of Saul and Black's behavior by recalling a meeting in February 2020. Brian Blase, then special assistant for health to the Trump White House’s National Economic Council, met with management in the SSA’s Office of Hearings Operations to demand that the agency fire administrative law judges with high rates of disability claim approval. ...

According to [Alex] Lawson [of Social Security Works] and other sources familiar with conversations within the SSA, Biden’s four-person transition advisory committee attempted to put backstops within the agency to limit Saul and Black by installing union-friendly Democratic staffers. Scott Frey of the AFL-CIO joined as Saul’s chief of staff, and Kilolo Kijakazi of the Urban Institute replaced Trump administration-era deputy Mark Warshawsky as the deputy commissioner of the Office of Retirement and Disability Policy. ...

[Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Sherrod] Brown said he has not yet personally asked Biden to fire Saul and Black, but his subcommittee staff is in regular communication with White House staff on the situation. Brown suggested that both he and Biden would prefer it if the two officials stepped down rather than having to be fired. He noted the lengthy legal fight either could take against the White House. ..

     Brian Blase certainly has a history of hostility to Social Security disability claimants. 

     By the way, while Saul might be able to fight being ousted, Black’s position has no such protection. I have no idea why he’s still there.