FY 2009 Budget Passes House

The omnibus appropriation for most of the federal government for Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 passed the House of Representatives on Wednesday. FY 2009 began on October 1, 2008. Social Security has been working under a Continuing Resolution (CR) since the beginning of the FY. The CR funds the agency only at the prior FY rate. The Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, hopes to complete work on the bill by March 6.

By the way, Alyssa Brodsky at FedBlog reports that the bill includes a one year ban on A-76 job competitions for federal work and requires federal agencies to establish guidelines for insourcing work now done by contractors that used to be done by federal employees. I have seen the word "outsource" a good deal over the past eight years. This is the first time that I have seen the word "insource."

The White House is supposed to release a budget outline for FY 2010 sometime today. It is not clear whether this outline will include a specific figure for the Social Security Administration or whether it will include the Social Security Administration's own budget request.

Social Security Treaty With Poland In Effect

The Social Security Administration has published a notice in the Federal Register that a Social Security treaty between the United States and Poland is going into effect.

No Backup

Social Security Commissioner Astrue gave an interview to WFED radio. He revealed that Social Security has no backup for its computer data and is about six months from having any kind of backup and eighteen months from having full backup.

I find this stunning. Having data backup is absolutely essential on any computer network of any size. I know it is much easier to do in a small lawfirm like mine, but I cannot believe that this could happen. Database corruption is a very real problem. There is always the danger of natural disaster or, in Social Security's case, terrorist attack. You have to be able to restore from a clean backup from time to time. This failing is an indictment of Social Security Commissioners going back decades. This should have been a panic button item beginning a long time ago. The agency has been and still is dodging bullets.

Astrue also talked about hiring 3,000 to 6,000 new employees this fiscal year, instead of the 5,000 to 6,000 he was talking about last week. Was this a mistake by him or the radio station or a sign that there will be fewer hires?

Update: I posted this based upon WFED's summary of the interview. I have now listened to the interview or at least as much as WFED has posted. What they posted seems to begin in the middle of something. The WFED summary is seriously misleading. Social Security is currently backing up its data to some extent with a commercial service at a cost of $3 million per year. Apparently, that service is inadequate.

The interview that I heard makes no reference to the number of employees to be hired at Social Security.

Interestingly, Commissioner Astrue makes reference to commercial tax preparation software such as Turbotax as a model for Social Security's online services. His point is that as complicated as Social Security is, it is not as complex as the tax codes. If Turbotax can do it, so can Social Security. The only problem with this reference is that most people preparing their tax returns do not suffer from significant mental illness. Virtually everyone filing a Social Security disability claim suffers from at least moderate depression and many suffer from much more severe mood or thought disorders. At ground level, it is obvious that there are limits to how far Social Security can go with online filing.

By the way, there was a lot of background noise on the WFED interview. Perhaps a noisy restaurant? The interviewer definitely neeeded a directional microphone.

Another One Too Sensitive

I obtained a copy of another recent Emergency Message that Social Security thought was too sensitive for the public to see on its website. Here is how it begins:

Emergency Messages EM-09006 - Increased Maximum Dollar Limit in the Fee Agreement Process - Instructions Will Follow Shortly
Audience: All RCs/ARCs/ROs/ADs/FOs/BOs/TSCs/PSCs/ODIO/OIO/ODO/DCO/OTS/OAS/OPSOS/DCS/OPB/ODARHQ/ODARROs/ODARHOs

Bureaucracy is mostly a good thing, but it does have some unfortunate tendencies. One of those bad tendencies is over reliance upon secrecy. I wish it were otherwise, but being a bureaucrat carries little cachet. An otherwise humble bureaucrat can feel more important if he or she has special knowledge that cannot be shared with the public. Probably more important, if the public does not know what an agency's policies are, the public cannot complain that the agency has failed to follow its own policies. Most important still is simple timidity. Bureaucrats often make the mistake of trying too hard to avoid making a mistake. The thought is that no one ever got in trouble for being too secretive, so err on the side of secrecy.

As tempting as over reliance upon secrecy may be, it is inconsistent with good government, American tradition and the current administration's policies.

At least, Social Security has released one recent Emergency Message, not that it is important. I am not sure that it is even completely accurate in its discussion of the $250 economic stimulus payments and existing overpayments.

Sensitive -- Not To Be Shared With The Public!

Anybody at Social Security want to explain why this is a big secret?

Identification Number AM-09032 SEN Effective Date: 02/23/2009
Intended Audience: All RCs/ARCs/ADs/FOs/TSCs/PSCs/OCO/ODARHQ
Originating Office: DCBFM OFPO
Title: Delay in Issuance of Forms 1099-MISC to Claimant Representatives
Type: AM - Admin Messages
Program: All Programs

SENSITIVE - NOT TO BE SHARED WITH THE PUBLIC
Retention Date: August 15, 2009

This instruction is intended to address the inquiries from attorneys, eligible non-attorneys, and affiliated entities who were expecting to receive a Form 1099-MISC by January 31, 2009, to report the aggregate fees received via direct payment from SSA during 2008.

Background
Sections 6041 and 6045(f) of the Internal Revenue Code, as implemented by 26 CFR 1.6041-1, require SSA to issue a Form 1099-MISC to each representative who receives, by direct payment from SSA, aggregate fees of $600 or more in the prior calendar year. To comply with this requirement, we developed a new 2-step registration requirement (using the SSA-1699 (Request for Appointed Representatives Direct Payment Information) and SSA-1695 (Identifying Information for Possible Direct Payment of Authorized Fees)) for representatives appointed on or after January 1, 2007, who had not waived direct fee payment, and for attorneys for whom a Federal court approved a fee on or after January 1, 2007. We also developed voluntary registration (using the SSA-1694 (Request for Business Entity Taxpayer Information) for affiliated entities who wished to have the payments reported as taxable income to the entity rather than to the representative.

General information
We had targeted the first issuance of these required Forms 1099-MISC for January 2009 to report the direct fee payments made during calendar year 2008. However, due to unexpected systems limitations, an executive decision has been made to delay issuance of Forms 1099-MISC to representatives for one year. Therefore, we are currently targeting the initial issuance of these Forms 1099-MISC for January 2010 in order to report direct fee payments made during calendar year 2009.

Can anyone tell me who at Social Security is responsible for labeling this sensitive?

House Version Of FY 2009 Budget Out

David Obey, the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, has released the Chairman's Mark, that is his recommended version, of the 2009 Fiscal Year (FY) appropriations bill. The amount for Social Security is $10.5 billion. This is for the fiscal year that began on October 1, 2008. Social Security has been working under a Continuing Resolution (CR) so far this FY. The CR funds the agency at the prior year's rate, despite the effects of inflation and increased workloads.

President Bush's recommended budget for Social Security for FY 2009 was $10.3 billion. Even after the election, advocacy groups were hoping for only $10.4 billion! The FY 2009 appropriation is in addition to the $500 million special appropriation for Social Security in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

FY 2009 Appropriations Coming Up In House On Wednesday

According to the House Majority Leader website, the consolidated appropriations bill for Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 will be coming up on the floor of the House of Representatives on Wednesday of this week. This is the bill to fund most federal agencies, including Social Security, for the current FY. Most agencies have been working on a continuing resolution (CR) that allows them to spend only at the rate during the previous year since the beginning of the FY, October 1, 2008.

Of course, first the bill must clear the House Appropriations Committee and that Committee has not yet scheduled a meeting to consider the bill or released a proposed bill.

Stay tuned. Things should be happening soon.

Fiscal Responsibility Summit

President Obama is convening a half day fiscal responsibility summit today that will discuss entitlement programs. The Washington Post and New York Times have articles.

My opinion is that this summit will amount to little. There is zero chance that this Congress will enact any cuts in Social Security and little chance that it will raise the cap on wages covered by FICA. The real problem is Medicare.

Baltimore Sun On Location Of National Computer Center

I have commented before that the Baltimore Sun hardly seems to notice what goes on at the largest employer in its area, a situation which I find deplorable since it conveys the message that what goes on at the Social Security Administration is unimportant. The possibility of an important new National Computer Center for Social Security somewhere within 40 miles of Social Security headquarters is finally attracting the Sun's attention. The Sun is running an editorial pushing for the National Computer Center to be located in a brownfields area along the route of a proposed 14 mile rail line between Woodlawn where Social Security's central offices are located, and Hopkins Bayview. Brownfields are abandoned or underused industrial and commercial facilities available for re-use. The Sun wants a twofer. They want to use the rail line as a reason to locate the National Computer Center in a rundown area of Baltimore County and to use the National Computer Center as a justification for funding to build the rail line through the rundown area.

Readers who live in the area can tell us how plausible the Sun's plan is.

Purged Files

I mention this because it may be of help to people outside the Social Security Administration planning Social Security training. A recent Social Security contracting notice makes a passing reference to some purged files that Social Security has created. Apparently, these are realistic Social Security disability files, but with all information that might identify a particular person purged. These files are used for training purposes. Creating this sort of file is no mean feat. Others outside Social Security could use purged files for training purposes. They may be obtainable by Freedom of Information Act request.