Hoist With Their Own Petard And Getting No Sympathy From Me

      From the Washington Post:

Ousted Social Security commissioner Andrew Saul, the Trump appointee who declared Friday he would defy his firing by President Biden, on Monday found his access to agency computers cut off, even as his acting replacement moved to undo his policies.

“I’m here to do the job,” Saul said from his home in Katonah, N.Y., where he had led the agency since the coronavirus pandemic forced most operations to shift in March 2020 to remote work, “but I can’t do anything with the communications shut down.”

 Saul, 74, called his firing and that of his deputy David Black, in an email from the White House Personnel Office, a “palace coup” ...

“There will be more,” said Saul, a wealthy former women’s apparel executive and prominent Republican donor who had served on the board of a conservative think tank that has called for cuts to Social Security benefits. “Stay tuned.” ...

His acting successor, Biden appointee Kilolo Kijakazi, took the reins Monday and was briefed by her staff on the agency’s top priorities, advocates in touch with her office said, including much anticipated planning for the safe reopening of Social Security’s national network of 1,200 field offices. ...

Senate GOP aides, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss political strategy, said they plan floor speeches starting this week ... to express their dismay with the White House. ...

Republicans also said they are considering procedural actions to block any permanent Biden nominees to the agency on the Senate floor.

“It’s not like Saul was a blazing partisan,” said one Senate GOP aide. “Our view is that longer terms for agencies like this exist for a reason.” ...

     There's so much here! Saul calls his ouster a "palace coup." What? Did he think he was a king? A threat of litigation? I'm sure the President is quaking in fear. Read the recent opinions of the Supreme Court and see if you think whatever lawsuit Saul files is going to get anywhere. Dark threats of procedural actions to block a nomination? I'm pretty sure that's not possible under current Senate rules. Saul not a "blazing partisan"? Are you kidding me? I can't even imagine what they think a "blazing partisan" would look like at Social Security if Saul wasn't one. Now they think that longer terms exist for a reason. Republicans are the ones who came up with the unitary executive theory that blew up longer terms. Do they think they're the only ones who get to use the unitary executive theory? Hoist with their own petard and getting no sympathy from me.

Saul "Off-Boarded"

      From CNN Politics:

The Biden administration has worked to off-board the fired commissioner of the Social Security Administration who said he would report to work on Monday despite being terminated on Friday, an administration official said.

"As with any employment termination, the government has taken steps to off-board Andrew Saul as we would any other former employee," an administration official says. 

Those steps should essentially prevent Saul, who was a holdover from President Donald Trump's administration and refused to resign when requested last week, from accessing the agency's systems after his termination. Saul previously told the Washington Post that he still planned to report to work on Monday by signing in remotely from his home in New York. ...

Disablity Claims Continue To Decline

      Below is a chart from Social Security showing the number of claims for Disability Insurance Benefit taken, sent for adjudication and approved since 1996.  Note that everything declined during the pandemic but the decline seems to be part of a longer term decline that has been ongoing since about 2011. We do not have such a chart for SSI disability claims. There's no doubt, however, that an SSI chart would show a precipitous decline during the pandemic.

Click on image to view full size

 

Social Security Legislation Coming Next Year?

      From the New York Times:

… Mr. Biden campaigned on increasing Social Security benefits for many Americans and moving to shore up the program’s finances, funded by higher payroll taxes on workers who earn $400,000 or more.

But his $4 trillion agenda has thus far excluded those efforts, which were also excluded from his first formal budget request as president. Administration officials have suggested privately that Mr. Biden will wait to push Social Security changes later in his term, once he has completed work on infrastructure and other efforts to remake the American economy with a larger role for government.

Mr. Brady and Mr. Crapo [two Republican Senators] alluded to that proposal in their reaction to the firing. “We are concerned that this politicization of the Social Security Administration is just the beginning of efforts to raise payroll taxes,” they said, “and seriously undermines bipartisan efforts to save Social Security for future retirees.

     Do Republicans want to filibuster a bill that would increase Social Security benefits in an election year? Is opposing an increase in the FICA tax that would only apply to those with high incomes a political winner for the GOP?

An Interview With Acting Commissioner

      From a May interview with Kilolo Kijakazi, the new Acting Commissioner of Social Security:

… Less access to application support services from community-based caseworkers to help their clients with the disability application process, needed medical care, and the associated medical records are all potential barriers that research suggests are more likely in communities of color and can prevent people from applying for federal benefits, for which they are eligible. Other research has shown that access to local Social Security offices can affect applications. …

Don't Know What They Don't Know About Social Security

      From a survey done by Nationwide Insurance:

Click on image to view full size

President Fires Saul And Black

      With no fanfare, the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice issued an opinion yesterday that the President may remove the Commissioner of Social Security from office notwithstanding the statutory provisions limiting removal from office. An opinion had been requested by the Deputy Counsel for the President.

     Update: Senator Grassley has tweeted that he's hearing that the President may oust Andrew Saul from his position as Commissioner. Senator McConnell has retweeted this saying "httI agree with @ChuckGrassley. This removal would be an unprecedented and dangerous politicization of the Social Security Administration."

     Further update: I've received several reports that there was a blast e-mail to Social Security employees at 4:30 today from an Acting Commissioner of Social Security indicating that Saul and Black are gone.

     And another update: The Washington Post reports that Saul still believes he’s Commissioner and plans to report for work on Monday — remotely from his home in New York city. Who’s going to break it to him?

ps://twitter.com/LeaderMcConnell/status/1413584718684168197?s=20

Paycheck Problem Affects 922 Social Security Employees.

      From Government Executive:

More than 900 Security Administration employees were left wondering Thursday how much of their regular paycheck they would receive at the end of the week, after a mishap caused their internal payroll software to report they would receive deposits of $0.00 for the pay period that ended July 2. ...

On Thursday, Social Security Administration spokesman Darren Lutz said the agency were still working with the Interior Business Center, which provides payroll services to around 150 federal agencies, on determining the cause, but that all 922 affected employees would receive at least a partial paycheck by Tuesday, SSA’s “official” pay day. ...

Not Such A Good Place To Work

     The Partnership for Public Service does an annual survey to determine the Best Places to Work in the Federal Government. The 2020 results are out and Social Security didn't do well at all. The agency came in as the 15th best place to work out of 17 large agencies.

    They also rated agency components.  Here are the rankings for Social Security's components, out of 411 total agency components:

• Deputy Commissioner for Analytics Review and Oversight -- 290

• Deputy Commissioner for Budget, Finance, Quality, Management -- 135

• Deputy Commissioner for Communications -- 256

• Deputy Commissioner for Hearing Operations -- 389

• Deputy Commissioner for Human Resources -- 252

• Deputy Commissioner for Operations -- 318

• Deputy Commissioner for Retirement & Disability Policy -- 267

• Deputy Commissioner for Systems -- 192

• Office of the General Counsel -- 101

• Office of the Inspector General -- 382
  

Tomorrow Is Deadline For Preliminary Reopening Plans

 

     I had earlier cited a Government Executive article saying that federal agencies were supposed to submit draft plans for return to new normal post-pandemic operations to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) by June 18 with final plans due by July 19. I had wondered why we had heard nothing about those draft plans. Now, there's a new Fedweek article saying the draft plans are actually due by tomorrow, July 9, with the final plans still due by July 19. Apparently, the deadline for draft plans was extended.