Hearing Scheduled On Astrue Nomination

The Senate Finance Committee has scheduled a hearing for January 24 on the nomination of Michael Astrue to become the next Commissioner of Social Security. No hearing has been scheduled on the nomination of Andrew Biggs to become Deputy Commissioner at Social Security. The failure to include Biggs' nomination in the January 24 hearing suggests that Biggs will never get a hearing.

COLA To Three Decimal Places

Social Security has published some of the least exciting rules in its history and that is saying something. Here is the summary from the Federal Register:

We are revising our rules that deal with automatic cost-of-living increases to primary insurance amounts under title II of the Social Security Act (the Act). The revision is necessary because, beginning with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for January 2007, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will publish the CPI to three decimal places. The CPI is currently published to one decimal place as is now reflected in our regulations. With this revision, our rules will conform to the change in the reporting of the CPI.

House Appropriations Subcommittee Members

The House Appropriations Committee has named the members of its Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over Social Security's appropriations. The list is below. Note the Dave Obey, the chair of this subcommittee, is also chair of the full committee, even though he is listed as only an ex officio member of the subcommittee. The Appropriations Committees may be more important for Social Security at this point than the substantive committees having to do with Social Security.

Chair: Dave Obey (WI)
Nita M. Lowey (NY)
Rosa L. DeLauro (CT)
Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. (IL)
Patrick J. Kennedy (RI)
Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA)
Barbara Lee (CA)
Tom Udall (NM)
Michael Honda (CA)
Betty McCollum (MN)
Tim Ryan (OH)
Dave Obey (WI), Ex Officio

MINORITY

Ranking Member:
James T. Walsh (NY)
Ralph Regula (OH)
John E. Peterson (PA)
Dave Weldon (FL)
Michael K. Simpson (ID)
Dennis R. Rehberg (MT)
Jerry Lewis (CA), Ex Officio

VA Disability Claim Backlogs Mirror SSA Backlogs

It is not just the Social Security Administration that has enormous backlogs of disability claims. Here is an excerpt from a CBS Evening News report:

Veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have already filed 176,000 new disability claims, but have run into a VA backlog of more than 400,000 cases. VA officials say reducing this backlog is their top priority.

"I am not happy with it. I want it to be shorter," says [VA] Secretary Jim Nicholson.

Nicholson says the hurdle is that every claim has to be verified when none of the records are on computers. "They're all paper and some are (very) thick. We are working this; it's a big deal for us. It's a high priority," Nicholson says. [Note that VA is saying that a transition to paperless files is the key, which is exactly what the Commissioner of Social Security has been saying, although there is no evidence to date that the conversion to scanned files is doing anything to reduce the backlog at Social Security.]

But Nicholson insists the VA is not understaffed, an assertion veterans groups call absurd. Lewis sees a mistake-prone agency in need of a wartime upgrade.

Medicare Part B Income-Related Premium Adjustment Appeals

Social Security has issued a new Program Operations Manual Series (POMS) section giving an overview of the appeals process for the new income-related adjustments to Medicare Part B premiums. Suffice it to say that both Social Security and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have to be praying that they get few of these appeals.

Washington Post On Civil Penalties

Stephen Barr in his column in the Washington Post reports on the huge civil fines proposed by Social Security's Inspector General for a few Social Security employees who allegedly used misleading statements or omitted material when preparing decisions at the direction of an Administrative Law Judge.

McDermott Gets Income Security And Family Support Subcommittee Chairmanship

The Seattle Times reports that Jim McDermott of Seattle has been named chairman of the Income Security and Family Support Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee. The Subcommittee had been known previously as the Human Resources Subcommittee. It has jurisdiction over the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, administered by the Social Security Administration.

Mike McNulty To Head Social Security Subcommittee

The Albany Times Union reports that Representative Mike McNulty will become the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee Subcommittee on Social Security. McNulty has strongly opposed making private accounts part of Social Security. Although I doubt that the Ways and Means Committee would have authority to do this, one McNulty idea is particularly interesting:

The new job will give McNulty an opportunity to tackle one of his pet peeves: The budget trick that allows annual surpluses in the Social Security trust fund -- overpayments from workers and their employers -- to be used for funding other government operations.

"Here in Congress, we ought to get to honest budgeting," McNulty said in an interview. "Social Security trust fund monies ought to be used for Social Security recipients, not for other purposes."

NADR Issues Newsletter

The National Association of Disability Representatives (NADR), an organization of non-attorney representatives of Social Security disability claimants, has issued its Winter 06-07 Newsletter. The Newsletter contains a good deal of news about NADR's upcoming conference in Albuquerque.

Democrat Proposes Panel On Cutting Social Security

From the Washington Post:

Leaders of the Senate Budget Committee want to assemble a bipartisan panel of lawmakers and administration officials to deal with the skyrocketing costs of Social Security and other entitlement programs, with the goal of bringing a reform proposal to a vote in Congress later this year.

Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said he and his predecessor, Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), have asked House and Senate leaders to consider appointing the panel, which would be composed of an equal number of Republican and Democratic lawmakers. They said they have also asked the White House to participate.

Conrad declined to provide many details of the panel, saying too much information could "kill this baby in the crib."