Furlough Worries Continue

From the minutes of a December 12, 2006 conference call of the Executive Committee of the National Council of Social Security Management Associations (NCSSMA), an organization of Social Security management personnel:

A press release from leading Democrats about continuing funding for a long-term CR [continuing resolution for funding of federal government operations] for the entire FY [fiscal year] 2007 was shared with the EC [executive committee] late yesterday. The details are trickling in and there is not a great deal of specifics available at this time. We will be working to come out as best as possible in the CR. NCSSMA will continue to make contacts in the House and Senate to seek an increased level of funding for SSA above the FY 06 level. ...

On the furlough issue, Rachel [Emmons, NCSSMA's lobbyist] thinks after looking closely at the language in the CR that the mechanism has been provided to prevent agencies from having to implement furloughs during the time from now through February 15 (expiration date of the current CR). If the entire year CR is enacted at the Senate-recommended level of funding it represents a $54 million cut from FY06. NCSSMA needs to be focused on impacting the CR number as positively as possible for SSA. Rachel says it is way too early in the process for us to know exactly where we stand. Rick [Warsinskey, NCSSMA president] believes that we still have a good possibility of having furloughs after February 15 if the full year funding is written so that adequate funding is not provided for SSA. He believes that is why we need to work on a strategy where we can focus on getting information to the appropriators. We will ask members to send in information about what is going on in their offices. We need to get this information in by mid-January. We will reach out to the organizations that worked with us on the Snowe-Conrad SSA funding letter as we continue to work on the FY07 appropriations and the FY08 budget as well.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all readers of the Social Security News Blog.

Bush Retains Belief In Social Security Reform

It sounds as if the President is interested in a deal that would go something like this. Democrats would get to raise the FICA tax and cut Social Security benefits (and we all know they are eager to raise taxes and cut benefits) and the President would get some sort of private accounts as an add-on to Social Security. Basically, the President wants to reluctantly agree to let the Democrats do the unpopular stuff, while he takes credit for anything that might be popular. From the Washington Post:

Bush's new flexibility on Social Security is part of a larger White House plan to renew the effort to tame the rising costs of government entitlement programs as the nation's population ages. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., who enjoys strong credibility among Democrats and Republicans, has been making the rounds on Capitol Hill to talk about restructuring Social Security, emphasizing that there are no preconceptions.

Administration officials have said the White House is willing to listen to other ideas, including personal savings accounts that do not involve diverting Social Security payroll taxes, as well as higher payroll taxes to help cover the expected growth in the program's costs. Still, Bush emphasized that young workers should be allowed to divert a portion of their Social Security taxes into private retirement accounts, a proposal that went nowhere in Congress last year.

"I will tell you this: In an issue like this, unless the president tries, nothing is going to happen," Bush said. "Without presidential involvement, nothing will happen. So we have a chance, and I'm going to work it."

CCD Annual Meeting

The Coalition for Citizens with Disability (CCD) is an umbrella organization with a membership composed of many non-profits involved in helping "citizens with disabilities" as their name says. The CCD is a major player in Social Security disability matters, especially when Democrats control Congress. The CCD held its annual meeting on December 19. The CCD received a report from its Social Security Task Force and gave its annual Chairperson's Award to Jo Anne Barnhart, the outgoing Commissioner of Social Security.

Settlement On Food Stamps Loss In Welfare To SSI Transition

After "welfare as we know it", which was actually Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), was dramatically altered during the Clinton administration to something now known as Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), it became clear that many who had been receiving AFDC were really disabled. They had gone on AFDC because dealing with the welfare bureaucracy was less difficult than dealing with the Social Security bureaucracy to get SSI, which says something about the Social Security bureaucracy. After the switch from AFDC to TANF made staying indefinitely on "welfare as we know it" impossible, most of these folks ended up getting on Supplemental Security Income (SSI). In the process, many ended up losing Food Stamps because of bureaucratic mistakes, at least in New York state. There has been litigation over this. The New York Times reports that the case has now been settled and 100,000 New York residents will be getting a total of $4.3 million to make up for the errors. Whether this problem extended to other states is a good question.

Good News On 1695s

Beginning January 1, 2007 attorneys and others entitled to withholding of fees for representing Social Security claimants must file a new form 1695, which provides Social Security with the attorney's or representative's Social Security Number. This will allow Social Security eventually to prepare 1099s giving the attorney or representative and the IRS information about fees received. The 1695 form appears to require the attorney or representative to list the name and Social Security Number of each of a claimant's dependents who may receive benefits on the account. Providing the dependents' names and Social Security Numbers may sound like a minor matter, but it would be a major burden on attorneys and representatives and, for that matter, the data entry would be a major burden on Social Security itself.

I have received word today from the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) that Social Security has decided that providing the dependent names and Social Security Numbers is optional. There will be no punishment for failing to provide the information.

Social Security Nominations And Appointments

The Social Security Administration has a useful web page showing the current status of Social Security nominations and appointments. It shows that there are plenty of possible confirmation battles ahead if the President continues to nominate people who will vigorously advocate Social Security privatization.

FOIA Suit For Employer Data

From the Judicial Watch website:

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the Social Security Administration (Judicial Watch v. Social Security Administration, Case No. 1:06CV02034). Judicial Watch is seeking documents identifying the top 100 corporations in the United States receiving the highest number of "no match" letters from the Social Security Administration.

The problem of getting information from Social Security under the Freedom of Information Act goes well beyond this case. As a general matter, Social Security tries hard to avoid giving information out of its databases, even when the information is a compilation that does not identify any individual.