Colvin Nomination Still Moving

The nomination of Carolyn Colvin to become Social Security's Deputy Commissioner is finally moving through the Senate. It has been reported out of the Finance Committee and placed on the Senate's "Executive Calendar," whatever that is.

Personnel Changes

MEMORANDUM

Date: December 15, 2010 Refer
Refer To: S7K

To: Senior Staff

From: Michael J. Astrue /s/
Commissioner

Subject: Executive Personnel Assignments - INFORMATION

I have several announcements to share.

In the Office of Budget, Finance and Management, Mike Kramer, Senior Executive Service Candidate Development Program (SESCDP) Class V, will become the Acting Deputy Associate Commissioner for Facilities Management (Environmental, Security & Emergency Response) effective January 3.

In the Office of Operations, Linda Dorn, SES CDP Class IV, will become the Associate Commissioner for Disability Determinations. Ruby Burrell, currently serving in that role, will become the Associate Commissioner for Field Site Operations in the Office of Quality Performance effective December 19.

In Operations and Systems, I have established a second Assistant Deputy Commissioner position. Effective January 3, Terrie Gruber will move from Assistant Deputy Commissioner for Disability Adjudication and Review to the Office of Operations as Assistant Deputy Commissioner, and Debbi Russell will move from Associate Commissioner for Automation Support to the Office of Systems as Assistant Deputy Commissioner.

Jo Armstrong will move from Associate Commissioner for Electronic Services to the Associate Commissioner for Automation Support. Sylviane Haldiman will move from Deputy Associate Commissioner for Automation Support to Associate Commissioner for Electronic Services. Laura Train, SES CDP Class IV, will become Deputy Associate Commissioner for Electronic Services.

In the Office of Disability Adjudication and Review, Jim Borland, currently Associate Commissioner for Electronic Services and Strategic Information will become Assistant Deputy Commissioner. Natalie Lu, SES CDP Class IV, will become the Acting Associate Commissioner for Electronic Services and Strategic Information.

Chief Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Frank Cristaudo has accepted a position as Associate Chief ALJ for Administrative Management.

Please join me in wishing everyone success in their new assignments.

Government Shutdown For The Holiday Season?

Republicans are threatening a government shutdown this month.

Why Social Security Cuts Don't Worry The Wealthy

From Yglesias.

Colvin Nomination Moving

The Senate Finance Committee has scheduled a meeting for tomorrow to report out the nomination of Carolyn Colvin to become Deputy Commissioner of Social Security.

Senate Omnibus Bill

The Senate version of an omnibus appropriations bill is out and it calls for $11.63 billion for Social Security generally (page 1083). Of that $1.86 million must be spent "only to increase the Social Security Administration’s acquisition workforce capacity and capabilities" and $283 million only for continuing disability reviews. There is another $513 million appropriated for additional continuing disability reviews on top of the $11.63 billion generally. The House bill called for $11.24 billion for Social Security. The President's recommendation had been $12.38 billion. At least, I think these are the numbers. I find appropriations bills to be extremely confusing.

I have no idea about the prospects for passage. I would like to think that the personnel who prepared this 1,924 page bill did not waste their time.

Shifting Focus

From Frontline, the newsletter of the National Council of Social Security Management Associations (NCSSMA):

Although Commissioner Astrue was not able to attend the [early October NCSSMA] conference, he did engage in active conversation with the delegates through a video conference. ... He also shared his vision of the future for field offices, describing the future as an “evolution rather than a revolution”. He expects field office positions will gradually evolve from handling repetitive, high volume workloads to handling the most complex cases while automated services begin handling more of the simple cases. ...

He predicted that ODAR [Office of Disability Adjudication and Review] will likely stop being the focus of the agency’s budget by the end of FY 2011 at which time field offices and customer service needs will likely become the primary focus of the budget.

And It's Not Even Popular!

A Washington Post poll shows that 57% of Americans oppose reducing the FICA tax by two percent. Even most Republicans oppose it. It is the only part of the package opposed by most people.

I think people understand the risk and they don't like it.

Expect A House Social Security Subcommittee Hearing On This Next Year

From the Boston Globe:

Her toddler was adorable and rambunctious, but his vocabulary was limited to “Mommy’’ and “that,’’ while other children his age knew dozens of words. When little Alfonso tried a full sentence it came out in a swirl of sounds, often followed by a major league tantrum when he realized he was not understood. And so his mother, Roxanne Roman, was not surprised when the 18-month-old was diagnosed by a specialist with speech delay.

It came as a shock, however, when she learned from relatives that Alfonso’s problem might qualify him for thousands of dollars in yearly disability payments through the federal Supplemental Security Income program. ...

Within three months, the boy’s application was approved. Alfonso receives $700 in monthly cash benefits, plus free government-paid medical coverage. Roman said her relatives told her she can pretty much count on the disability checks for Alfonso, now 5, to keep arriving in the mailbox for the rest of his childhood.

“They don’t ask many questions about the child once you’re approved,’’ Roman said. ...

Driving much of that growth is the twelvefold spike since 1997 of children approved based on a primary diagnosis of delayed speech, a sometimes persistent but more often short-lived affliction that starts in toddlerhood. ...

Government data show that Social Security officials have, over the past decade, fallen far short when it comes to conducting the regular case reviews required by statute. A typical SSI disability case is supposed to get a full medical review every three years, but from 2000 to 2008 the agency examined, on average, only 10 percent of the children on SSI. ...

Many early childhood specialists were stunned to learn that speech delay had become such a popular gateway for children’s SSI benefits and suggested that that may be because it is the easiest-to-measure impairment among preschoolers. ...

At a Social Security Administration waiting room in Lawrence one day this summer, the mother of a 9-year-old girl said her daughter was approved quickly for SSI payments as a toddler with speech delay and has never had a full review of her disability status. ...

When asked if she thinks her daughter is still severely disabled with her speech, Tina replied hesitantly, “No.’’ ...

“I know she’s not severely disabled anymore,’’ the mother said. “It’s an interesting thing, really, that she does still qualify. She gets better and better.’’ ...

Officials said they recognize that the lack of disability reviews is a major problem, one they tie to a shortage of staff and funds....

he Western Massachusetts city of Holyoke, one of the poorest in the state, provides an extraordinary window into how the SSI disability program works for some of the youngest children, for better and for worse.

Here, 1 of every 5 children living in poverty receives SSI disability benefits. And of the 939 children who qualified last year, 699, or 74 percent, were approved for behavioral, learning, or developmental delays, data show — the highest percentage among all ZIP codes in Massachusetts. One of three of those on SSI was approved after a diagnosis of speech delay, according to federal data obtained by the Globe through a public records request. ...

Expect the House Social Security Subcommittee to hold a hearing on this next year. Expect pressure on Social Security to approve fewer of these kids and to review more of their cases once they go on benefits. Expect Social Security to cut back on service in other ways in order to free up the money for these reviews and for the appeals from denials.

An Easy Solution

From Emergency Message EM-10086:

Discontinuation of the Mid-Atlantic Program Service Center (MATPSC) Remittance Accounting Unit (RAU) Hotline ...

MATPSC is discontinuing the RAU hotline due to extremely high call volume. Effective immediately, all FOs [Field Offices] and PSCs [Program Service Centers] are to contact MATPSC via e-mail ...

If a debtor contacts your office about canceling recurring credit card payments, please take the following actions:

· Send an e-mail to ||PHI ARC PCO RDDB DMS the same day the debtor contacts your office.

It sounds like the situation is that the activities of this unit generate a lot of calls from the public and from other Social Security employees who have been prompted to call by members of the public. There are just too many calls to deal with. They find a simple solution. They change to what amounts to an unlisted telephone number and send out a message telling Social Security employees to stop calling them. Social Security employees can send e-mail messages. The public can no longer communicate directly with them. This shifts the unit's problem to other components of Social Security. Probably, this means that this unit never hears of some problems. This unit does get to sort out the problems to the extent they have the manpower to address them and does not have to listen to members of the public complaining about the delays.