New Hearing Office For Tampa Bay Area

The St. Petersburg Times reports that while making an appearance in Tampa with a local Congresswoman Commissioner Astrue promised a new Social Security hearing office for the Tampa Bay area. Astrue cited the large backlog of cases awaiting hearings in the area.

According to the most recent report, the Tampa hearing office ranked number 121 in average processing time. Here is a list of offices with worse processing times going from bad to worst:

• Detroit
• Fort Wayne
• Omaha
• Kansas City
• Milwaukee
• Buffalo
• Grand Rapids
• Columbia
• Bronx
• Cincinnati
• Atlanta North
• Portland
• Dayton
• Lansing
• Oak Brook
• Columbus
• Springfield
• Madison
• Indianapolis
• Greensboro
• Jackson
• Oak Park
• Greenville

Washington State Threatened With DDS Hiring Freeze

Washington state is about to enact a state government hiring freeze. The problem is that at the moment the Washington state Disability Determination Services (DDS) , which makes the initial and reconsideration determinations on Social Security disability claims in the state, is included, according to Adam Wilson, a columnist at The Olympian newspaper.

Although all DDS costs are paid for by the federal government, this is a state agency. It is hard for a governor to exempt the employees at DDS from this sort of adverse action without making other state employees angry, even though including DDS in the hiring freeze does nothing for the state budget.

If a hiring freeze does not sound like a big deal to you, think again. State DDSs have terrible turnover problems. A year long hiring freeze would be much worse than furloughing employees for a couple of days a month. It would quickly cripple the state DDS.

Why Astrue's Dispute With AFGE Matters

I have heard the comment that since Astrue is Commissioner until 2013, he is free to engage in a public snit with the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), a labor union that represents most of Social Security's workforce and a major power in the Democratic party, with little fear of consequences.

Social Security's "independence" is illusory. Let me detail a few of the ways that the Legislative branch and other parts of the Executive branch can impact this Social Security Commissioner.

• Congress holds hearings. No one likes getting beaten up at a Congressional hearing. There is not much you can do about it if a Congressional committee does decide to beat up on you.
  
• Congress can investigate the Social Security Administration. Is Social Security simon pure? Of course not. It is far too big to not have some skeletons in the closet.
  
• Social Security needs the cooperation of Congress to resolve budgetary and legislative matters.
• Congress can pass laws that redefine the role of the Social Security Commissioner, taking away some of his powers or requiring him to report to a board. In the worst case for Astrue, he could be reorganized right out of a job, by putting Social Security back in the Department of Health and Human Services or making it a cabinet level department.
  
• The President is going to appoint a new Deputy Commissioner of Social Security. Do you think that Astrue will get any say on this appointment?
• The role of the Deputy Commissioner of Social Security is not defined in any meaningful way by statute. That could be changed. Even if this is not changed by statute, the White House and Congress could demand that Astrue get the approval of the Deputy Commissioner before even asking them for anything. I had predicted that Astrue will try to shunt the Deputy Commissioner off to something important but non-controversial. I still expect that he will try that, but I doubt that it is going to work.
  
• A new Deputy Commissioner could pass along damaging information to the Congress and the White House.
• A new Deputy Commissioner could leak damaging information to the media.
• A new Deputy Commissioner could openly criticize the Commissioner at Congressional hearings. The Commissioner cannot prevent the Deputy Commissioner from testifying.
  
• The President is likely to appoint a new Inspector General at Social Security. Do you think that Astrue is going to get any say on this appointment?
• The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) , which is part of the White House, has to approve any regulatory proposals made by the Social Security Administration.
• OMB prepares the President's budgetary proposal.
• The President, through OMB, is certain to put out new rules concerning the relationship between federal agencies and employee unions. The President is going to listen to what AFGE says about what should be in these rules. Astrue is not going to like these rules. You can be sure that OMB will be extremely vigilant concerning Social Security's adherence to these new rules.
  

Baltimore Sun

Yesterday, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) ran a full page ad in the Baltimore Sun demanding the resignation of the head of the Baltimore area's largest employer, the Social Security Administration. The head of that largest employer shot back with some nasty insinuations about the union. Coverage in the Baltimore Sun: nada. Can anyone who lives in the Baltimore area explain this to me?

Astrue To Make Appearances With Republican Congresswoman

Fresh off what amounted to a public shouting match with the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), a major power in the Democratic party, Michael Astrue is planning to make appearances on Friday with Republican Congresswoman Ginny Brown-Waite of Florida, a member of the Health and Income Security Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee. That Subcommittee does have jurisdiction over the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program that Social Security administers.

Update. I am told that Congresswoman Brown-Waite is on the Social Security Subcommittee. Both her website and the Ways and Means website were out of date.

Astrue Responds To Union -- And Escalates Conflict

A broadcast e-mail from the Commissioner:

From: ^Commissioner Broadcast
Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2009 12:40 PM
Subject: COMMISSIONER'S BROADCAST--02/05/09

A Message To All SSA And DDS Employees

Subject: AFGE Advertisement Regarding Employees' Activities Association

Below is a statement I have just released concerning the Employees' Activities Association (EAA). Our plan is to replace and improve important services previously supplied by the EAA, as we did when we brought the Woodlawn and Metro West child care centers into compliance with GSA policy and empowered the parents to choose the provider who can best serve them and their children.

Michael J. Astrue

Commissioner

Statement of Commissioner Michael J. Astrue Concerning the American Federation of Government Employees' (AFGE) Advertisement Regarding the Employees' Activities Association (EAA)

For nearly two decades, the Social Security Administration has entered into no-bid, no-audit contracts worth tens of millions of dollars to one well-connected organization, the Employees' Activities Association (EAA). That era is over.

The EAA has stubbornly stonewalled our efforts to conduct an audit of its activities and the activities of its secretive for-profit subsidiaries. AFGE's officers have responded to our efforts to ensure that federal laws and policies are followed by repeatedly threatening political retaliation against me and members of Social Security’s career civil service.

The American public is demanding honesty, transparency, and compliance with the law. I will continue to uphold these principles regardless of the inaccurate attacks that stance generates.

I have asked Congress to direct the Government Accountability Office to do the full audit that the EAA has thus far resisted.

I also want to thank the Social Security employees who first blew the whistle on the EAA, and I want to assure them that we will continue to stand by them.

Social Security has also sent this out as a Press Release.

"Centrist" Group Of Senators Wants To Cut $140 Million From Social Security

A group of what are labeled "centrist" Senators is circulating a list of cuts they want to see in the Senate version of the President's economic stimulus package. The list includes a $140 million cut for Social Security (page 6). This would cut out the entire amount for what the bill calls "information technology acquisitions and research, which may include research and activities to facilitate the adoption of electronic medical records in disability claims and the transfer of funds to ‘‘Supplemental Security Income’’ to carry out activities under section 1110 of the Social Security Act", but leaves $750 million for the National Computer Center.

I still cannot comprehend why the Senate bill has no money to improve the immediate situation at Social Security.

More On Union Anger At Social Security Management

From a January 14, 2009 letter from Witold Skwierczynski, head of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) union local that represents much of Social Security's workforce, to then President-elect Obama:

Current service problems [at Social Security] include the 765,000 backlog of disability hearings appeals which are awaiting hearings and decisions, the more than 500 day average processing time for disability hearings appeals, the current 20% busy rate on the SSA 800 number service, the fact that 45% of callers to an SSA field office either can’t reach an SSA employee or are told to call back due to lack of staff to handle the call, the inability of the Agency to process and complete 50% (i.e., 1.3 million per year) of scheduled SSI redeterminations, the inability of the Agency to process 67% (i.e., 465,000 per year) of scheduled medical Continuing Disability Reviews (CDRs), and significantly increased waiting times for visitors in SSA field offices. ...

AFGE believes that the stimulus package should include $1.71 billion to restore SSA staff and enable the Agency to process the workloads assigned to it by Congress and service the pension benefit requirements for the nation’s aged, disabled and poor. ...

The union has not joined its allies in the disability community and other SSA interest groups in requesting that the economic recovery legislation contain a provision for $750 million requested by SSA to construct a new National Computer Center (NCC). AFGE represents all bargaining unit employees who work at the NCC in Baltimore MD. Neither Commissioner Astrue nor any of his leadership team have to date communicated with the union regarding any desire or plans to replace the current NCC. Thus, SSA has made no attempt to justify to AFGE the enormous $750 million estimated cost for this project. In addition, SSA has made no effort to inform either the union or NCC employees regarding the proposed location of this facility. ... [A] relocation of the NCC would result in significant economic and personal disruption for employees who work in the NCC and the Woodlawn community where the current facility is located. ...

In closing, although Congress and the current administration underfunded SSA, Agency leadership is also responsible to a significant degree for the current unacceptable situation in SSA. Commissioner Astrue, Deputy Commissioner for Operations McMahon, and Deputy Commissioner for ODAR Foster are responsible for not seeking sufficient resources from Congress and for designing solutions to SSA workload problems which will eliminate SSA’s traditional role in assisting the public to obtain the most advantageous benefit possibilities. AFGE also believes that Deputy Commissioner Wells and Office of Labor and Employee Relations Assistant Deputy Commissioner Beever are directly responsible for terminating Agency communications with the union and SSA employees. AFGE urges you to ask for the Commissioner’s resignation and the reassignment of Ms. McMahon, Mr. Foster, Mr. Wells and Mr. Beever to positions outside of direct supervision of Agency operations and labor relations due to their malfeasance and gross mismanagement. If these leaders are not terminated or reassigned, you will be unable to influence the direction of one of the key Agencies in government – the Social Security Administration.

Union Wants Astrue Out

From Joe Davidson's Federal Diary at the Washington Post:

John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, was among those who successfully pushed to give the Social Security commissioner a six-year term. The thinking, when Congress approved the tenure in 1994, was that it would keep the position beyond the reach of bureaucratic politics.

But now, with a president in office he likes and a commissioner he doesn't, Gage is suffering from a case of Be Careful What You Wish For.

He and other union leaders are leading an effort to push Commissioner Michael J. Astrue out of office.

The union planned to run an advertisement in today's Baltimore Sun saying that under Astrue's watch "budget cuts and critical personnel shortages have made it impossible for your staff to service the public."

Leaders of union committees, councils and locals representing Social Security employees recently voted unanimously for a 23-point resolution expressing no confidence in Astrue, a Bush administration appointee. And Gage's office is asking executive committee members of the AFL-CIO to sign a letter urging President Obama to seek Astrue's resignation.

"If Mr. Astrue refuses to resign, we request that you use your authority . . . and remove Mr. Astrue from office for malfeasance and neglect," the letter says.

Such a finding would be the only way Obama could give Astrue the boot. His term doesn't expire until 2013. Astrue has no plans to quit before then, according to spokesman Mark Lassiter, who also said the commissioner was traveling and unavailable for comment.

The White House also had no comment on the effort to oust Astrue. But with all the problems the president has had with appointees lately, he probably isn't eager to look for more trouble.

The 23 points charge Astrue with shortchanging public service by closing SSA offices, allowing the disability claims backlog to grow and wasting resources by "substantially increasing non-productive managerial staff."

One of the main complaints the union has with Astrue concerns the decision to move Employee Activity Association functions, such as day-care and fitness centers, to other vendors. That was "the straw that broke our backs," reads the advertisement.

Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) urged Astrue to stop all "plans to undermine" the activity association. "I am troubled by allegations that your administration has made unsupported claims of financial impropriety," her Jan. 9 letter to him said.

Clearly no fan of Astrue, Mikulski expressed concern "that an audit authorized by your office was undertaken for the sole purpose of trying to find a reason to shut down the EAA." She asked for assurances that any future actions would "not serve an ideological agenda."

Astrue responded by saying the activity association had become "a large and complex commercial enterprise that abuses its exclusive access to our employees for the benefit of for-profit subsidiaries." He acknowledged, however, that an investigation "could not prove or disprove most of the serious allegations." Nonetheless, he added, "it was clear that significant deficiencies existed and that employees were being denied the affordable, professional care that their children deserve."

Here is more from the union about the EAA controversy.

Social Security Hastens To Approve Disability Claim For Man Needing Heart Transplant

I posted about the article in the Spartanburg (SC) Herald Journal about a man who needs a heart transplant who had been denied Social Security disability benefits. The newspaper is now reporting that the man has now been approved by Social Security.

There have always been media stories about Social Security claimants who have been denied. I never saw any systemic effort by Social Security to speed up adjudication in those cases until the last year or so. Now, it happens virtually every time that a newspaper or television station runs a story about a person who has been denied Social Security disability benefits. This is not happening by accident. This has to be coming down from the Commissioner's office.

Doing this gives readers or viewers the mistaken impression that the report that they saw or heard was an isolated example, but this is wrong. There are terrible systemic problems.

Hastening to solve the problems of individual claimants who are featured in the media is terrible public policy. Instead of trying to mislead the public about its problems, the agency should be telling the newspapers and television stations the truth, that it is doing the best it can, but that it is badly understaffed and underfunded.

Barack Obama has talked about using another controversy as a "teachable moment." Commissioner Astrue needs to consider the concept and consider what his obligations are as a public servant.