Why Wouldn't Democratic Platform Endorse Expanding Social Security?

     From the Washington Post:

The Democratic National Committee added a call for a $15 minimum wage to its 2016 platform, a victory for progressives produced by a deal between supporters of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Just an hour later, however, Clinton-loyal members of the platform committee defeated two amendments that would have committed the party to expanding Social Security — a moment marked by cries of "Shame!" and "Are you Democrats?" from Sanders supporters sitting in the observation area of the Hilton hotel where the party was meeting.

Would You Name Your Daughter After A Character In "Game Of Thrones"?

     From the Houston Chronicle:

Using name data from the Social Security Administration, MooseRoots, a genealogy research site that’s part of Graphiq, set out to discover which names broke their own popularity records in 2015. To do this, they found the 100 most popular names, 50 from each gender, that were ranked higher in the U.S. than ever before. ...

The most popular record-breaking female name of 2015 is Charlotte. ... This spike could partially be explained by the arrival of the royal baby Princess Charlotte. ...

Of the 50 most popular record-breaking female names, several can be connected to figures from pop culture. The popularity of the name “Arya” could partially be due to the “Game of Thrones” character Arya Stark played by actress Maisie Williams. The name “Emilia” also appears on the list, perhaps for the same reason. Emilia Clarke plays Daenerys Targaryen in the hit HBO show. ...

“Riley”, which reached a peak popularity ranking of 35, might be due to Riley Curry, daughter of well-known NBA player Stephen Curry. “Ivy” made the list as well, perhaps due to Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s daughter Blue Ivy Carter, who made a cameo in Beyoncé’s “7/11” music video. ...

Of the 50 most popular record-breaking male names, a few are worth highlighting. The popularity of the name “Jaxon” which reached its peak popularity ranking of 44, could be connected to pop singer Justin Bieber’s younger brother Jaxon Bieber. “Maddox” which also makes the top 50, is the name of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s adopted son. ...

Kind Of Pathetic

     There's been a controversy over the Social Security Administration's efforts to collect ancient debts, some more than thirty years old, by seizing current benefits owed as well as tax refunds. Social Security generally has no records to substantiate that anything was ever owed. Often the agency tries to collect debts from the children of the person allegedly overpaid.

     Inevitably, these extreme debt collection practices have generated litigation. Apparently, Social Security has no confidence in its ability to defend its practices. The agency is now trying to moot a class action lawsuit by writing off the alleged debt of the named plaintiff. This has generated an appeal.

     Let me suggest that if Social Security doesn't think it can win in court on the merits of its position that it should change its position. This effort to moot the litigation is unworthy of a government agency.

Happy Birthday FOIA!

     The 4th of July of this year marked the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA). In a rare act of bipartisanship that has attracted almost no public attention, Congress passed important amendments to FOIA that are coming into effect this month. Here are some excerpts:

• Search fees will no longer be assessed if an agency fails to meet the strict time limits set forth in FOIA unless the records requested exceed 5,000 pages. Since no agency is meeting the time limits, there will no longer be a search fees in most cases.
• Agencies can no longer withhold documents under an FOIA exemption unless "the agency reasonably foresees that disclosure would harm an interest protected by an exemption." An agency can't just come up with some halfway plausible argument for an exemption. They have to have an argument that there will actually be some public harm.
• Agencies can no longer use the inter-agency or intra-agency exemption for documents more than 25 years old.
• "Each agency shall designate a Chief FOIA Officer who shall be a senior official of such agency (at the Assistant Secretary or equivalent level)."

     FOIA doesn't have a special impact at Social Security. It's just that it's crucial for our system of government. There won't be a FOIA float at any 4th of July parade but it's an essential guarantee of our liberties.
     Making a FOIA request isn't difficult. You can do it online.

A Question For Federal Court Wonks

     The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District Of North Carolina is now requiring that Social Security make the transcripts that Social Security files with the Court be searchable. The other two Districts in North Carolina aren't doing this. How common is this nationwide?

     By the way, searchable Social Security disability claim files at the administrative level would be nice.

Happy Independence Day!

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Rep Payee Mess In Richmond

     From the Richmond Times-Dispatch:

Hundreds of seniors and disabled Social Security recipients flocked to the federal agency’s West Cary Street office on Friday for their monthly checks after a Richmond-based payee service suddenly closed, leaving many without access to their accounts.

Crossroads Inc. is a payee service that accepts Social Security checks and manages the money on behalf of clients who are unable to do so themselves.

For a small fee, the company is supposed to handle rent and other bills for its clients and budget any remaining money throughout the month.

But the Social Security Administration said it received notice on June 23 that Crossroads, located at 6800 Everglades Drive in South Richmond, had closed.

A phone recording at the service told clients to collect their monthly checks from the Social Security Administration office on West Cary Street on Friday.

Some of those waiting in line — many said they had waited more than three hours as the line wrapped around the building much of the morning — said the company still had their money from previous checks and that they had been told their accounts with Crossroads had been drained. ...

Henrico police said they are investigating allegations against the company along with other jurisdictions. ...

New Neurological Listings

     The Social Security Administration has revised its Listings for neurological disorders. The new Listings go into effect on September 29.

An Opinion On eBB

     Below is a comment posted on this blog concerning the Electronic Bench Book (eBB) for drafting Social Security Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) decisions that I think deserves more attention:

David Hatfield said...

This should have been a classic case of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", but some just could not leave well enough alone. FIT [Forms Integrated Template] was designed by a handful of users from the hearings operation. Decisions were made by me, an ALJ, with input from users. Then Commissioner Barnhart saw the wisdom of allowing adjudicators to create their own tools, and she gave me full decision authority to make it happen. It was done by users for users. Expenses were virtually zero, utilizing the amazing talents of SSA's DGS [Digital Government Strategy] staff. We created the system in less than a year, and by the following year almost every decision was written in FIT and it was embraced by almost every ALJ. Why? It saved folks time, and led to better written decisions. ALJs liked it because the quality of drafts increased, allowing the ALJs to hear and decide more cases instead of editing drafts all day. Decision writers liked it as the prompts inside the templates gave them a virtual GPS, saving them time and reducing errors. Perhaps most importantly it allowed for flexibility and did not impede the huge process of hearing and deciding cases. We never had to mandate its use, as users wanted it. We made modifications based on user input, and everything we did was with the user in mind. We were not concerned with data mining, or production of management reports. FIT was all about making the adjudication process better in quantity and quality. We built in SmartFIT features that eliminated obvious errors, such as not allowing a favorable decision to be written when the date last insured expired before the established onset date, or not allowing a case to be denied when the medical/vocational Grid directed a conclusion of disabled.

True, FIT was and is just a WORD product. But when the agency was looking at a web-based system, it could have easily converted FIT. We urged that. But some thought the hearing level could be converted to the eCAT system that was being designed for the DDS. We tried to convince folks that while the polices at the levels are the same, the adjudicative operations are very different. FIT "fit" the hearings operation. I thought they were listening. eBB was then created, and I, along with a colleague, sat down with a big group of people, none of them hearings operation employees, attempting to guide them toward FIT. However, unlike FIT, eBB had many masters and agendas, each wanting features to serve their own purposes (eg, data mining), or who still wanted elements of eCAT at the hearings level. The primary purpose of creating an adjudicative tool was frustrated. It was clear decisions had been and were being made behind the scenes. As a result, 4 years and a lot of money expended later, eBB is still struggling. It is a case of too many cooks in the kitchen, with many of them never having cooked a meal.