Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

A Few Details On The Binder and Binder Bankruptcy

     A few details are emerging about Binder and Binder's bankruptcy. The company, which is not a law firm, listed its assets and liabilities as being between $10 million and $50 million. The biggest creditor was Stellus Capital Management at $16.7 million. However, the company had to get a secured loan of $23 million from US Bank and Capital One to stay in business.

Merry Christmas

Issa Report On ALJs

     Darrell Issa's House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform issued a report yesterday on Misplaced Priorities: How the Social Security Administration Sacrificed Quality for Quantity in the Disability Determination Process. The report talks about the great pressures that have been placed upon Social Security's Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) to produce as many decisions as possible. The report accepts at face value the assertion that the pressures to produce have led to a higher proportion of favorable decisions issued. The report demands that Social Security fire some ALJs, which it lists by name, and discipline others. The report insists that Social Security should stop hiring more ALJs and focus its efforts on controlling ALJ decision-making. 

     Social Security lacks the power to act against ALJs in the manner recommended by the report. To protect ALJs from agency influence, it's quite difficult to fire or discipline them. What Issa wants is heavy-handed agency influence on ALJ decision-making. You can't do that. 

     A halt in hiring of ALJs and a total focus on controlling ALJ decision-making would result in an explosion of Social Security's already unacceptable hearing backlog. Darrell Issa might be happy with that but it's unworkable. It's inevitable that as the hearing backlog explodes media coverage of the backlog will explode.

Binder and Binder In Bankruptcy

     The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Binder and Binder filed for Chapter 11 bankrupcty last night. I wonder what they're telling their employees.

This Is Also Part Of Chrismas

December is the busiest time of the year for psychiatrists.

TV Station Covers Hearing Backlog

     A Nevada television station is continuing to cover Social Security's serious hearing backlog.

Merry Christmas

ABLE Act Approved By Congress

     The Senate approved the ABLE Act last night and sent it to the President. Here's a description of ABLE:

Modeled after tax-free college savings accounts, the ABLE bill would amend the federal tax code to allow states to establish the program.

To qualify, a person would have to be diagnosed by age 26 with a disability that results in "marked and severe functional limitations"; those who are already receiving Social Security disability benefits would also qualify. Families would be able to set up tax-free accounts at financial institutions, depositing up to $14,000 annually to pay for long-term needs such as education, transportation and health care.

The contributions would be in after-tax dollars but earnings would grow tax-free.

The ABLE accounts would be able to accrue up to $100,000 in savings without the person losing eligibility for government aid such as Social Security; currently, the asset limit is $2,000. Medicaid coverage would continue no matter how much money is deposited in the accounts.

Criticism For Senate Democrats On Colvin Nomination

     Michael Histzik is giving Senate Democrats a tough time for abandoning Carolyn Colvin's nomination for a term as Commissioner of Social Security. I'm with him.

     As best I can understand what happened, Senate Republicans threatened to drag out cloture on Colvin's nomination as long as possible which would have delayed the start of the Christmas break for all Senators. Their real reasons for making this threat are unclear but their stated reasons are ridiculous, as Hiltzik demonstrates. All Senate Republicans could do was delay since they lacked the votes to prevent confirmation. Would Republican Senators have actually insisted on hanging around the Capitol for a losing battle to prevent Colvin's nomination when there was no real reason to oppose her in the first place? We'll never know since Senate Democrats simply gave up on the nomination instead of taking the risk that they would be forced to delay their holiday break. No wonder Democrats are about to be in the minority in the Senate.
     As a footnote, the two Democratic Senators from Colvin's home state, Maryland, Mikulski and Cardin, went to the Senate floor yesterday to pointlessly ask for unanimous consent for the consideration of Colvin's nomination. Of course, a Republican Senator objected. Neither Mikulski nor Cardin spoke up Saturday night when Senator Reid asked for unanimous consent to withdraw cloture on Colvin's nomination. No one spoke up then. That's how Colvin's nomination died.

Merry Christmas

Commissioner's Broadcast E-Mail

From: ^Commissioner Broadcast

Sent: Monday, December 15, 2014 6:02 PM

Subject: COMMISSIONER'S BROADCAST--12/15/14

A Message To All SSA and DDS Employees
 

Subject: Important Updates

I want to update you on some important Congressional actions that took place over the weekend.

First, the U.S. Senate did not vote on my nomination to be Commissioner of Social Security, citing the parliamentary requirement that, as a cabinet level official, 30 hours of debate would be required at a time when they had only a few days left to confirm over 20 nominees.  I will continue, however, to serve as the Deputy Commissioner of Social Security and as Acting Commissioner.  As always, I am heartened by your support and deeply appreciate your daily efforts to serve the American public.

Second, I am pleased to let you know that Congress approved our FY 15 budget, and the President is expected to sign it shortly.  This level of funding will enable us to continue to provide quality services to our customers today, and help position the agency for success in the future.

I look forward to continuing to work with you and the new Congress.  There is much to be done.  I know I can count on you to demonstrate the dedication and professionalism that makes our agency one of the top 10 best places to work in the Federal government.

Again, thank you for your support and well wishes.

Best regards,

Carolyn

Senate Democrats Back Off Effort To Confirm Colvin So They Could Go Home

     The New York Times has as good an explanation for why Senate Democrats backed off their effort to confirm Carolyn Colvin as Commissioner of Social Security as I can find:

On Wednesday, Democrats plan to turn to the confirmation of a dozen federal district court judges. They backed off an attempt to confirm Carolyn W. Colvin as head of the Social Security Administration because it was going to be too time-consuming and Republicans were unlikely to yield because of their objections over continuing investigations at the agency.

     Don't ask me why they bothered to start cloture if they weren't willing to see it through to the end.

Colvin Won't Be Confirmed

      In a surprise move, late last night Senate Democrats dropped their efforts to confirm Carolyn Colvin as Commissioner of Social Security.

When You Don't Know What Else To Say, Just Use The Old Pending Litigation Dodge

     From the Washington Post:

The Social Security Administration, which announced in April that it would stop trying to collect debts from the children of people who were allegedly overpaid benefits decades ago, has continued to demand such payments and now defends that practice in court documents. 

But although some people whose refunds were seized were reimbursed in recent months, some of those same taxpayers have since received new demands from Social Security, asserting that the debts remain and seeking repayment. ... 

Asked to explain the about-face, Social Security officials said they would respond only to written questions. Late Friday, four days after The Post provided questions, the agency issued this statement from spokesman Mark Hinkle: “We are finalizing our review of the Treasury offset program, but cannot discuss specifics due to the pending litigation.”

Colvin Nomination On Senate Floor; GOP Can't Block It Now

     I don't know when it will come up for a final vote but Carolyn Colvin's nomination for a term as Commissioner of Social Security is being considered by the Senate today. Republicans lack the votes to prevent confirmation so it's going to happen.

     Update: Colvin has Ted Cruz to thank for her impending confirmation. Seriously.

What's Going On With The Binder And Binder Bankruptcy?

     I have no inside information about the impending Binder and Binder bankruptcy but I think I can give the most likely answers to three key questions.

Is Binder and Binder going out of business?

Not now. In Chapter 11 the debtor stays in business and tries to reorganize. Maybe Binder and Binder can reorganize so they can stay in business indefinitely but I would be surprised if they can. My guess is that they stop taking cases and work down the cases they already have. That would take around three years. Their expenses would drop dramatically since they would no longer be paying for advertising and they could start laying off employees but their gross receipts would stay almost the same for a couple of years. They would be making money as they wind down. Maybe they could hope to crank up the ads later if times got better.

Why is Binder and Binder going bankrupt?

In the best of times, representing Social Security claimants is a high overhead, low profit margin business. This is the worst of times to be representing Social Security claimants. There is almost no profit to make. Add in the fact that Binder and Binder owes about $40 million and the question isn't why they're going into bankruptcy but how they've stayed in business so long. This comes as no surprise to me.

Why is it such a tough time to be representing Social Security claimants?

Social Security's Administrative Law Judges are approving a much lower percentage of disability claims than they did a few years ago. Because of inadequate staffing backlogs are climbing rapidly at Social Security. If you think this means that Binder and Binder should be doing better since their fees would be increased by the delay, you'd be naive. The slowdown in getting to the eventual payday completely overwhelms the importance of the somewhat larger paycheck. If the backlog gets two months longer over the course of a year, you lose two months of gross income but your expenses are largely unchanged. A 5% or 10% larger fee isn't nearly enough to make up the difference.

I Was Kind Of Expecting This

     Binder and Binder may be about to enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Colvin Nomination May Soon Come Up For Vote In Senate

     There are signs that Carolyn Colvin's nomination for a term as Commissioner of Social Security is a matter of some priority with Senate Democrats. She is currently the Acting Commissioner. Her nomination is apparently considered as being on the same plateau as lifetime judicial nominations. There is a rumor that it may come up on the Senate floor as early as today but it's not on the calendar at this time.