DCPS Making Progress, I Guess

     From an Emergency Message issued by Social Security:

Purpose
This Emergency Message (EM) is to notify all disability claims adjudicating components that the Disability Case Processing System (DCPS) is a policy compliant place to record case information for adjudicating components using DCPS.

Background
DCPS is a critical initiative that will replace 52 independently operated legacy systems used by state agencies (Disability Determination Services or DDSs) that make disability determinations for SSA as required by statute. DCPS will replace the legacy systems with a modern, accessible, and secure application capable of providing the flexibility and high performance that the DDSs and federal sites need to process disability claims timely and efficiently.

Chair Of Social Security Subcommittee Wants GAO Investigation Of DDS Docs

     From The Tennessean:

The chairman of a Congressional Ways and Means subcommittee is requesting an investigation into doctors hired to review applications to the federal disability program.

U.S. Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., cited recent reports by the USA TODAY NETWORK in a letter sent Wednesday to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the federal government's chief fiscal watchdog agency. ...

In Tennessee, an investigation revealed some doctors were racing through applications submitted by people seeking to prove they are too sick or injured to work.

Paid by the case, doctors were reviewing up to five application files per hour. Experts said such speedy review of applications, which can contain thousands of pages of medical records, isn't plausible. ...

Larson, who chairs the Social Security Subcommittee, is asking the GAO to conduct its own state-by-state examination of doctors' performance.

Former Commissioners Ask For Budget Process Change

     From Mark Miller, a columnist for Reuters:

A worsening customer service crisis at the Social Security Administration has prompted three of its former commissioners to urge the U.S. Congress to fix the annual budgeting process that has starved the agency of the resources it needs to do its job.

A letter calling for administrative budget reforms signed by the former commissioners - two appointed by Democratic presidents, and one by a Republican - will be delivered to congressional leadership later on Wednesday.

An advance copy of the letter was provided to this column by the authors, and by advocates pushing for reform of the Social Security budget process. It will be sent to 19 key lawmakers, including the leadership of both parties and the chairs and ranking members of all the key congressional committees controlling budget, appropriations and finance.

To read the letter and view the list of recipients, see: (https://bit.ly/2KnIt3C) ...

Congress cut the agency’s budget nearly 11% between fiscal years 2010 and 2019, after adjusting for inflation, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, while the number of beneficiaries grew by more than 16%. ...

Since passage of the 2011 Budget Control Act, which places caps on nondefense discretionary spending, the Social Security budget has been forced to compete with other federal spending priorities - for example, the National Institutes of Health. ...

The trio of former commissioners is proposing a legislative fix to the problem. The letter to be sent to Congress on Wednesday is signed by Ken Apfel, who served as commissioner during the Clinton administration, Jo Anne Barnhart, who was nominated by President George W. Bush and served from 2001 to 2007; and Carolyn Colvin, who served from 2013 to 2017 during the Obama administration.

The former commissioners propose that Congress eliminate the requirement that the Social Security administrative budget be included in the caps. Congressional appropriations committees would still approve the agency's budget. "But importantly," they write, "the Committees would be able to approve the funding that would be needed for the Social Security Administration to provide adequate service to the public." ...

     You can bet that Andrew Saul will be asked about this when he testifies before the House Ways and Means Committee in the near future. I think this will be an early test of his independence from the Trump Administration. You would expect him to agree with these former Commissioners but I doubt that this would be the position of the Office of Management and Budget, which is part of the White House, or of Congressional Republicans.
     By the way, I wonder who organized this letter. The timing is interesting. Could Saul have been in on this?

Vote On Saul Confirmation

     Here's how the Senators voted yesterday when Andrew Saul was confirmed as Commissioner of Social Security:

Alexander (R-TN), Not Voting
Baldwin (D-WI), Nay
Barrasso (R-WY), Yea
Bennet (D-CO), Yea
Blackburn (R-TN), Yea
Blumenthal (D-CT), Not Voting
Blunt (R-MO), Yea
Booker (D-NJ), Nay
Boozman (R-AR), Yea
Braun (R-IN), Yea
Brown (D-OH), Yea
Burr (R-NC), Yea
Cantwell (D-WA), Yea
Capito (R-WV), Yea
Cardin (D-MD), Yea
Carper (D-DE), Yea
Casey (D-PA), Yea
Cassidy (R-LA), Yea
Collins (R-ME), Yea
Coons (D-DE), Yea
Cornyn (R-TX), Yea
Cortez Masto (D-NV), Yea
Cotton (R-AR), Yea
Cramer (R-ND), Yea
Crapo (R-ID), Yea
Cruz (R-TX), Yea
Daines (R-MT), Yea
Duckworth (D-IL), Nay
Durbin (D-IL), Yea
Enzi (R-WY), Yea
Ernst (R-IA), Yea
Feinstein (D-CA), Nay
Fischer (R-NE), Yea
Gardner (R-CO), Yea
Gillibrand (D-NY), Not Voting
Graham (R-SC), Yea
Grassley (R-IA), Yea
Harris (D-CA), Not Voting
Hassan (D-NH), Yea
Hawley (R-MO), Yea
Heinrich (D-NM), Nay
Hirono (D-HI), Nay
Hoeven (R-ND), Yea
Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Yea
Inhofe (R-OK), Yea
Isakson (R-GA), Yea
Johnson (R-WI), Yea
Jones (D-AL), Yea
Kaine (D-VA), Yea
Kennedy (R-LA), Yea
King (I-ME), Yea
Klobuchar (D-MN), Nay
Lankford (R-OK), Yea
Leahy (D-VT), Yea
Lee (R-UT), Yea
Manchin (D-WV), Yea
Markey (D-MA), Nay
McConnell (R-KY), Yea
McSally (R-AZ), Yea
Menendez (D-NJ), Yea
Merkley (D-OR), Nay
Moran (R-KS), Not Voting
Murkowski (R-AK), Yea
Murphy (D-CT), Yea
Murray (D-WA), Nay
Paul (R-KY), Yea
Perdue (R-GA), Yea
Peters (D-MI), Yea
Portman (R-OH), Yea
Reed (D-RI), Nay
Risch (R-ID), Yea
Roberts (R-KS), Yea
Romney (R-UT), Yea
Rosen (D-NV), Yea
Rounds (R-SD), Yea
Rubio (R-FL), Yea
Sanders (I-VT), Not Voting
Sasse (R-NE), Yea
Schatz (D-HI), Nay
Schumer (D-NY), Yea
Scott (R-FL), Yea
Scott (R-SC), Yea
Shaheen (D-NH), Yea
Shelby (R-AL), Yea
Sinema (D-AZ), Yea
Smith (D-MN), Nay
Stabenow (D-MI), Yea
Sullivan (R-AK), Yea
Tester (D-MT), Yea
Thune (R-SD), Yea
Tillis (R-NC), Yea
Toomey (R-PA), Yea
Udall (D-NM), Nay
Van Hollen (D-MD), Nay
Warner (D-VA), Yea
Warren (D-MA), Not Voting
Whitehouse (D-RI), Nay
Wicker (R-MS), Yea
Wyden (D-OR), Yea
Young (R-IN), Yea

Crucial Decision On Social Security Union

     From Government Executive:

A panel tasked with resolving contract disputes between agencies and federal employee unions sided with management at the Social Security Administration on several key issues, gutting official time and telework rights for union employees at the agency.

In a May 29 decision, the Federal Service Impasses Panel weighed in on 12 proposed articles of a new contract between SSA and the American Federation of Government Employees. The panel asserted jurisdiction over the matters after labor and management officials negotiated for seven months on a new collective bargaining agreement, eventually coming to agreement on more than 50 provisions.

The panel gave a green light to a proposal by Social Security officials that would significantly reduce the amount of official time AFGE employees can spend on representational duties. According to the agency, the union used “roughly” 181,181 hours of official time during fiscal 2018, which officials said cost nearly $10.5 million. The agency proposed a “bank” for the union as a whole at 50,000 hours of official time per fiscal year, with individual employees capped at between 250 and 650 hours per year, and said it “is seeking to eliminate official time ‘loopholes.’ ”

     The Federal Service Impasses Panel is entirely composed of Republicans.  The union is livid.

Saul Confirmed By Senate

     By a vote of 77 to 16, Andrew Saul has been confirmed by the Senate as Commissioner of Social Security. His term extends to January 2025.

SSA Wants To Get Around Lucia By Having Appeals Council Rewrite ALJ Decisions?

     See below for an order from the Appeals Council concerning a case where an objection had been made to the consideration of the case by an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) who had not been appointed in a manner consistent with the Supreme Court's interpretation of the constitution in Lucia v. SEC. The agency thinks it can get around Lucia by having the Appeals Council rewrite the decision. Click on each page below to view full size.

     There are some obvious problems with what the Appeals Council has done. In Lucia itself, the Supreme Court didn't remand the case to the SEC to rewrite the decision. It specifically remanded it to a different ALJ. Why would the Appeals Council remedy the constitutional defect in a manner different from the Supreme Court? The Appeals Council is saying the hearing held previously was fatally defective yet it is not giving the claimant a new hearing. Isn't the claimant entitled to a hearing before an ALJ who was properly appointed? There's not going to be a hearing before the Appeals Council itself. There's also the not so small problem that it's been more than a year since the ALJ hearing and decision. The Appeals Council decision will cover the issue of whether the claimant is disabled all the way up to the date of its action yet the claimant is given no opportunity to submit medical evidence concerning this time period or to have a new hearing concerning this time period.

     I can only guess what's been going on behind the scenes at Social Security with respect to Lucia. My guess is that there's been a lot of disagreement and little leadership. Despite this order, I doubt that the agency's final position has been resolved. We'll see what happens once Andrew Saul is confirmed as Commissioner, which will likely happen later today.

     By the way, note that the Appeals Council supposedly issued this notice of May 22 but we didn't receive it until May 28. There are serious problems printing and mailing decisions at every level of the Social Security Administration. This matters because of appeal deadlines.

Saul Nomination To Get Vote Today

     There was a unanimous consent agreement in the Senate yesterday that the debate and vote on the nomination of Andrew Saul to become Commissioner of Social Security will occur today.

Senate Vote On Saul Nomination May Come Today

     The Senate is tentatively set to vote today on invoking cloture on the nomination of Andrew Saul to become Commissioner of Social Security.

Still True