Furlough Worries At SSA

The article below is from the Baltimore Sun. The only good thing is that the article does not mention the prospect of a furlough before Congress can reconvene. One has to wonder if this could have been avoided if Barnhart had been willing to speak out publicly about this budget problem before things got this bad, but she was unwilling to do this until it became clear that she would not be reappointed and by then it was too late and she had made too many statements promising dramatic productivity gains from her Disability Service Improvement plan.

The Social Security Administration may still have to close offices nationwide for several days next year after the Republican-led Congress failed to act on nine of the 11 spending bills for 2007 and incoming Democratic leaders announced that they would hold spending at current levels until Oct. 1.

Agency spokesman Mark Lassiter said this week that extending 2006 spending levels through the entire 2007 fiscal year would "leave the agency open for the furlough."

When Congress returns in January, Lassiter said, one way to avoid sending workers home without pay would be to set Social Security spending at $9.29 billion, the amount approved by a House subcommittee for 2007 and $146 million more than what the agency is operating with now.

Outgoing Social Security Commissioner Jo Anne B. Barnhart said in an interview last week that once Congress dips below that figure, "there's no place left to give."

Barnhart has been warning of a potential furlough since September, which she characterized as the culmination of Congress allotting the agency less than the president requested for five straight years.

"Let me assure you, there is no strategy here," said Barnhart, a former congressional staffer. "As the person who's responsible for a program that delivers benefits to 48 million people, I think it's my responsibility to make sure Congress understands the consequences of its planned actions. If I had waited until after Congress signed off on appropriations bills and said, 'Gee, that's not enough money. We need to do a furlough.' I think they'd be a little annoyed with me."

Barnhart said that if Congress had supported the president's requests, people applying for disability benefits and challenging denials would not be faced with the long delays they are experiencing now.

Lassiter said Wednesday that the agency has instituted a hiring freeze until at least Feb. 15, almost a month after Barnhart's term expires. The agency had been hiring one employee for every three who left.

"The point is, there's a very direct correlation between service and getting the president's request and not getting the president's request," Barnhart said.

Until late last week, when the spending bills failed to get off the Senate floor, the agency's lobbying efforts had been gaining ground with 54 senators, including 12 Republicans, sending a letter to the chamber's leadership calling for enough money to avoid service disruptions.

"On the philosophical level, I certainly feel the agency is enjoying a victory, but on the practical side we're still piling on," Barnhart said. "We could absorb the House's proposal, but it's not going to be an ideal situation by any stretch of the imagination."

Richard Warsinskey, president of the National Council of Social Security Management Associations, said that agency budget officials estimate that for every $20 million the agency loses from the House's 2007 budget proposal, offices would shut down for one day.

"So if we stick with our current funding level, we're looking at a seven- or eight-day furlough," Warsinskey said. "It's not looking good."

NOSSCR Board of Directors

The National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) has announced its officers and board of directors for 2006-2007.

Social Security Budget To Be Decided Early On

The chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees have jointly announced that they intend to pass a year long continuing funding resolution early in the next Congress for the entire government. If this resolution is the same as the continuing funding resolution already approved through February 15, 2007 (and that will certainly be the starting point), Social Security is in deep trouble, with staff furloughs inevitable. The furloughs might be the most dramatic problem, but the agency would avoid even longer furloughs only by a near complete hiring freeze, no overtime and a very limited budget for things like equipment purchases and travel. All of this put together would certainly cause dramatic increases in the agency's already terrible backlogs. Social Security must now seek urgently to get an adjustment in the continuing funding agreement to allow more operating funds, but this effort may be crippled since the two top positions at the agency, Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner, will soon be vacant, leaving Social Security almost leaderless.

SSAB Meeting Agenda

The Social Security Advisory Board (SSAB) has announced the following agenda for its meeting on December 15, 2006.

Social Security Advisory Board
Meeting Agenda
Friday December 15, 2006

10:30 a.m. - 1145 a.m. Linda Maxfield, Assistant Deputy Commissioner for Policy,

Social Security Administration

1:30 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. Richard V. Burkhauser,

Professor and Chair,

Department of Policy Analysis and Management,

Cornell University

Debra Bailey Whitman,

Specialist in the Economics of Aging,

Congressional Research Service

The meeting will be held in the Board's conference room, Suite 625

400 Virginia Avenue, SW

Washington, DC

The agenda suggests that the Board is trying to come up with some dramatic proposal for "Social Security reform." There are even some straws in the wind suggesting that the SSAB wants to propose something before the next Congress convenes. The rest of us may roll our eyes upon hearing that there are actually people who believe that there will be some agreement in the next two years on "Social Security reform" that will satisfy Congressional Democrats and Republicans and President Bush, even though none of the parties has any interest in raising taxes or cutting benefits and most of the Republicans still suffer from the delusion that adding some sort of private accounts to Social Security will help the situation instead of making it worse.

Social Security ALJ Pleads Not Guilty

The Associated Press reports that Douglas Combs, Jr., a Social Security Administrative Law Judge (ALJ), has pleaded not guilty to federal mail fraud charges. The charges relate to Combs' service as a Kentucky Circuit Court Judge before becoming an ALJ.

Aloha Disability Claims

The Honolulu Star Bulletin reports on Vikky Nakamura, a supervisor at the Hawaii Disability Determination Branch, in its series, "Hawaii at Work." Even in paradise there are disability claims.

SSA Semi-Annual Regulatory Agenda

Social Security has published its semi-annual regulatory agenda, showing the regulations that the agency is working on. The list seems to lack anything surprising or mysterious. There usually seems to be at least one item that is described in such a sketchy way that it is impossible to tell whether it is important, but not this time.

New NADE Newsletter

The National Association of Disability Examiners (NADE), an organization of employees of state disability determination agencies, has published its Fall 2006 Newsletter. The Newsletter contains this little piece of new information from Sylvia Karman of Social Security's Office of Disability Evaluation Policy:

Draft final regulations of Silvera-Vargas pending at the executive level. This regulation will clarify illiteracy and inability to communicate in English as an education level and its impact on potential skill transferability.