Fraud In Texas

From KLTV in Tyler, TX:

United States Attorney John L. Ratcliffe announced today that a Troup couple has pleaded guilty to Social Security benefits fraud in the Eastern District of Texas. Dale Lowery, 54, and Brenda Lowery, 48, both of Troup, were indicted in February 2008 and charged with theft of government property. They both pleaded guilty today before United States Magistrate Judge John D. Love. According to information presented in court, on August 31, 2003, Brenda Lowery applied for Social Security benefits ion behalf of her minor child on the grounds that the child's father, Dale Lowery, was disabled and receiving benefits. In the application, Lowery represented that the child was living with her and her husband and had lived with them for the previous 13 months. In 2005, Dale Lowery applied with the Social Security Administration to be the representative payee for the child and again represented that the child lived with him. In fact, the child had not lived with either parent since October 2002. As a result of the false applications, the Lowerys received over $28,000.00 in Social Security benefits to which they were not entitled.

Long Term Budgets For Entitlement Programs?

I regard enactment of this as a wildly implausible, but here it is, from the Capitol Insider, put out by the Disability Policy Collaboration:

A 16-member group of diverse and prominent economists and budget experts has proposed ending the automatic spending for large entitlement programs, such as Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare, and instead establishing long-term budgets (to cover 30 years) which would have to be re-examined every 5 years. The group also suggested establishing a “trigger” which would force changes to the programs when costs go beyond levels anticipated in the long-term plans. The group, which included three former Directors of the Congressional Budget Office, was convened by the Brookings Institution and the Heritage Foundation, liberal-leaning and conservative-leaning think tanks, respectively. The group worked for nearly two years on the proposal, which members of the group consider a start to a “conversation” because they believe that continuing the status is not an option. The proposal would have to be considered in Congress and by the Administration before it could become law.

Satan Resides in D.C. Or At Least A Bunny

This is from the Washington Post.

New Mental Listings Coming

No proposed regulation can go in the Federal Register until the Office of Management and Budget, which is part of the White House, approves it. This item was just filed with OMB:

AGENCY: SSA	RIN: 0960-AF69
TITLE: Revised Medical Criteria for Evaluating Mental Disorders (886P)
STAGE: Proposed Rule	ECONOMICALLY SIGNIFICANT: No
** RECEIVED DATE: 04/10/2008	LEGAL DEADLINE: None

Empire Law Center Newsletter

The Empire Law Center of New York state has issued its March 2008 Disability Law newsletter, almost all of which is devoted to Social Security matters.

New Chair For Senate Appropriations?

Appropriations are key for the Social Security Administration. The chairs of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees are some of the most powerful people in our nation's capitol. Here is some news from Taegan Goddard's Political Wire:

With Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) ailing, Senate Democrats are eyeing Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) "as a potential backup if Byrd is unable to serve as manager for the next war supplemental," according to CQ Politics.

The news comes as the Politico reports rumors of possible coup to displace the 90 year old chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

"New stories were floated this week of agitation in the party's ranks over whether the West Virginian would be able to manage an upcoming wartime spending bill. But when fingers pointed to Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) as two agitators in the leadership, both offices issued indignant denials."

Something Coming On Cardiovascular Listings

The White House, through the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) must approve all regulatory items appearing in the Federal Register. This item just appeared on the OMB website, indicating that OMB has completed its review:

Social Security Administration

AGENCY: SSA	RIN: 0960-AG74
TITLE: Revised Medical Criteria for Evaluating Cardiovascular Disorders (3477A)
STAGE: Prerule	ECONOMICALLY SIGNIFICANT: No
RECEIVED DATE: 03/27/2008	LEGAL DEADLINE: None
** COMPLETED: 04/09/2008	COMPLETED ACTION: Consistent without Change

TV Story On Social Security Backlogs In San Diego

Television station "Fox6" (I could not even find the station's official call letters on its website) in San Diego is running a lengthy piece on hearing backlogs. The backlogs in San Diego are getting longer since the local hearing office has been sent 3,100 out of state cases to hear. You can watch the piece, but the station almost hides the video link. It is on the right side of the page, just under the list of most popular stories.

Benefit Eligibility Screening Tool

From a press release put out by the Department of Labor:

A newly designed version of the U.S. Social Security Administration's (SSA) online Benefit Eligibility Screening Tool (BEST) application, powered by the U.S. Department of Labor-managed GovBenefits.gov, has been launched to make it easier for individuals to determine their eligibility for 17 different Social Security programs.

GovBenefits.gov is the federal government's official source for information about more than 1,000 benefit programs available through 16 agencies. BEST is SSA's Web-based tool for information about benefits administered by that agency. Previously, the two applications represented separate screening tools that citizens could access to learn about programs in which they might participate. A new customized connection links the content of these sites and eliminates the redundancy of having two distinct portals.

OIG And AALJ

Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) has done an audit of Social Security's expenditures for training conferences run by the Association of Administrative Law Judges (AALJ), an employee union that represents many, but far from all, Administrative Law Judges (ALJs).

I would say that it looks as if OIG was looking for reasons why the agency should discontinue its expenditures for these training conferences. The OIG found what it regarded as adequate reason to recommend this. The bottom line is that Social Security intends to do this training in house.

Commissioner Astrue has bitterly attacked ALJs and the AALJ. This outcome cannot be a surprise to anyone who has followed the state of labor relations at Social Security under Michael Astrue.

I expect that the AALJ will press to undo this decision if the next President is a Democrat and Michael Astrue decides not to try to hang on as Commissioner under a Democratic President.