With Democrats taking over control of the House of Representatives and the Senate there are many Social Security questions. I wish I had answers for this long list of questions.
- Senators Max Baucus, who will become chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and Harry Reid, who will become the Senate Majority Leader, sent Michael Astrue, the nominee to become the next Social Security Commissioner, a letter on October 31 asking some tough questions. They said in their letter that they wanted a response by November 3. What did Astrue say in his response?
- What committments will Democratic Senators ask of Astrue?
- What committments is Astue prepared to make to Democratic Senators to get confirmation?
- Regardless of Astrue's answers and committments, can he be confirmed?
- If there is trouble getting Astrue confirmed as Commissioner, it would normally be possible for the President to give him a recess appointment, which would let Astrue be Commissioner until January 2008, when the next Congress ends, but the President can give a recess appointment only if the Senate is in recess. The Senate can prevent recess appointments by never officially recessing. Will Senator Reid, who will become the Senate Majority leader, avoid Senate recesses to avoid giving President Bush the opportunity to make recess appointments?
- It seems obvious that there will be an Acting Commissioner of Social Security in a couple of months, or maybe sooner, if Commissioner Barnhart does not want to hang around until the bitter end. Who will be Acting Commissioner?
- How well will Social Security operate under an Acting Commisioner?
- Will Social Security be operating under an Acting Commissioner until there is another President?
- Who will be the new Chairman of the House Social Security Subcommittee? Sander Levin is currently the ranking Democrat on the Subcommittee, but that means little once the Democrats take over the Committee. Levin may end up as Chairman of some other House Ways and Means Subcommittee. There is already speculation that Richard Neal of Massachusetts or John Lewis of Georgia will become the new Chairman of the Subcommittee.
- There have been rumors that the proposed regulations that would increase the age categories of the grid regulations by two years will not be adopted. Will these proposed regulations be officially withdrawn before the current Commissioner of Social Security leaves office? If not ficially withdrawn the proposed regulations could be revived at any time and quickly adopted.
- No budget has been passed for Social Security for fiscal year 2007, which began on October 1. The agency is operating on a continuining funding resolution. Will the lame duck Congress which will reconvene soon be able to pass a budget or will this issue be held over for the next Congress?
- Will Democrats in the Senate try to block passage of a budget in this Congress so they can redo the budget after taking over in January 2007?
- Regardless of when a budget is passed, will Social Security get adequate operating funds so that the agency can avoid furloughing employees in the current fiscal year?
- There are rumors that Social Security intends to furlough employees for two days before the end of this calendar year. Will this still happen if there is no budget before the end of the year but Democrats are promising that once they take over that they will pass a sufficient budget so that furloughs can be avoided?
- Social Security has terrible budget problems. Congressional Democrats will surely be sympathetic, but what can they do? They have also promised fiscal responsibility. Tax cuts and the costs of the war in Iraq leaves little money for the Democrats to work with.
- Will there be an effort to pass a supplemental funding bill for Social Security in 2007?
- Newly empowered Democrats will surely demand that Social Security do something rapidly about the enormous backlogs in holding hearings on Social Security disability claims. What, if anything, will Social Security do to meet these demands?
- Can Democrats in Congress pass legislation that will force action on the backlogs?
- What kind of legislation could Congress pass to force action on the backlogs?
- Would the President sign such legislation?
- Will be President be foolish enough to continue his plan to push Social Security privatization in 2007? The answer to this question seems obvious -- a resounding "NO" -- but that would have been the obvious answer to the question even before the election and, yet, Bush made it quite clear before the election that he was strongly committed to pushing privatization in 2007.
- What effect will change in control of Congress have on the regulation of fees charged by attorneys and others for representing Social Security claimants?
- At the moment, both withholding of fees in SSI cases and withholding of fees for certain non-attorney representatives of claimants are set to expire before long. Republicans in the Senate were the biggest supporters of non-attorney withholding and previously held up SSI withholding to force inclusion of non-attorney withholding. Will Republicans be able or willing to do this again?
- If non-attorney withholding is renewed will there be increased requirements for non-attorneys to qualify for withholding?
- Will there be increased regulation of non-attorney representatives, who are current subject to almost no regulation?
- Will attorneys be able to achieve higher limits on fees they can charge?
- Could attorneys even achieve a substantial deregulation of Social Security attorney fees, so that Social Security issues a joint check to the attorney and client, leaving the fees to be determined by the marketplace?
