Senate Finance Committee Members Names

The Senate Finance Committee has jurisdiction over Social Security. The membership of the Senate Finance Committee for this Congress has been released and is shown below, although there has been no release of the names of the Social Security Subcommittee members.

Committee Chair Sen. Max Baucus (DEM-MT) Ranking Member Sen. Charles E. Grassley (REP-IA)

Democrats (11) Sen. John Rockefeller (DEM-WV) Sen. Kent Conrad (DEM-ND) Sen. Jeff Bingaman (DEM-NM) Sen. John Kerry (DEM-MA) Sen. Blanche Lincoln (DEM-AR) Sen. Ron Wyden (DEM-OR) Sen. Charles Schumer (DEM-NY) Sen. Debbie Stabenow (DEM-MI) Sen. Maria Cantwell (DEM-WA) Sen. Ken Salazar (DEM-CO) Republicans (10) Sen. Orrin Hatch (REP-UT) Sen. Trent Lott (REP-MS) Sen. Olympia Snowe (REP-ME) Sen. Jon Kyl (REP-AZ) Sen. Craig Thomas (REP-WY) Sen. Gordon Smith (REP-OR) Sen. Jim Bunning (REP-KY) Sen. Mike Crapo (REP-ID) Sen.

House Ways and Means Committee Members

The names of the members of the House Ways and Means Committee for the current Congress have been released. This is the committee which has jurisdiction over Social Security. The list is below, but the membership of the Social Security Subcommittee has not yet been announced.

Committee Chair Rep. Charles B. Rangel (DEM-NY-15th) Ranking Member Rep. Jim McCrery (REP-LA-4th)

Democrats (24) Rep. Fortney Stark (DEM-CA-13th) Rep. Sander Levin (DEM-MI-12th) Rep. Jim McDermott (DEM-WA-7th) Rep. John Lewis (DEM-GA-5th) Rep. Richard Neal (DEM-MA-2nd) Rep. Michael McNulty (DEM-NY-21st) Rep. John Tanner (DEM-TN-8th) Rep. Xavier Becerra (DEM-CA-31st) Rep. Lloyd Doggett (DEM-TX-25th) Rep. Earl Pomeroy (DEM-ND-At-Large) Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (DEM-OH-11th) Rep. Mike Thompson (DEM-CA-1st) Rep. John Larson (DEM-CT-1st) Rep. Rahm Emanuel (DEM-IL-5th) Rep. Earl Blumenauer (DEM-OR-3rd) Rep. Ron Kind (DEM-WI-3rd) Rep. Bill Pascrell (DEM-NJ-8th) Rep. Shelley Berkley (DEM-NV-1st) Rep. Joseph Crowley (DEM-NY-7th) Rep. Kendrick Meek (DEM-FL-17th) Rep. Chris Van Hollen (DEM-MD-8th) Rep. Allyson Schwartz (DEM-PA-13th) Rep. Artur Davis (DEM-AL-7th) Republicans (17) Rep. Wally Herger (REP-CA-2nd) Rep. Dave Camp (REP-MI-4th) Rep. Jim Ramstad (REP-MN-3rd) Rep. Sam Johnson (REP-TX-3rd) Rep. Philip English (REP-PA-3rd) Rep. Jerry Weller (REP-IL-11th) Rep. Kenny Hulshof (REP-MO-9th) Rep. Ron Lewis (REP-KY-2nd) Rep. Kevin Brady (REP-TX-8th) Rep. Thomas Reynolds (REP-NY-26th) Rep. Paul Ryan (REP-WI-1st) Rep. Eric Cantor (REP-VA-7th) Rep. John Linder (REP-GA-7th) Rep. Devin Nunes (REP-CA-21st) Rep. Patrick Tiberi (REP-OH-12th) Rep. Jon Porter

Poll Shows Social Security Illusions

The Associated Press reports that the Treasury and the Federal Reserve have polled baby boomers about their retirement expectations. Only 16% of the baby boomers expect to go on Social Security retirement benefits at age 62 -- but 34% actually do. Only 16% of baby boomers expect that Social Security will be their main source of retirement income -- but Social Security is actually the main source of income for 31% of retirees.

Union Objects To Fines For Social Security Employees

The Federal Times reports that the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) is objecting to monetary penalties for Social Security employees who are alleged to have improperly applied expert testimony to allow a large number of Social Security disability claims. The fines involved amount to $3.5 million for one supervisor and $100,000 and $215,000 for other employees. The matter is being litigated and the union has filed grievances.

Social Security Employees Face Large Fines

There have been rumors for some time that Social Security's Office of Inspector General was investigating one Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) for his conduct in allowing benefits to a large number of Social Security disability claimants. The Des Moines Register now confirms these rumors, but makes it clear that the ALJ is now deceased. It is other employees who acted at the ALJ's direction who are being targeted. See the excerpt below:

In deciding whether to award Social Security disability benefits to certain people, a government administrative law judge will often rely on expert testimony as to the applicant's employability. However, one such judge, the late J. Michael Johnson of West Des Moines, is alleged to have repeatedly relied on expert testimony obtained from one individual in one disability case. In that case, the expert had answered broad, hypothetical questions. Johnson allegedly applied the expert's hypothetical answers to 700 subsequent cases that he handled, awarding benefits in most, if not all, of those cases.

The inspector general's office, which has been investigating the matter for at least four years, contends that it was improper for Johnson's written decisions not to have disclosed the reliance on expert opinions that were not tied to the cases under consideration.

Johnson died in August 2003. The fines that are now being proposed would be levied against three Social Security Administration lawyers who wrote Johnson's decisions and one management official who oversaw the work of the decision-writers.

The inspector general is proposing civil fines of $5,000 for each of the 700 cases in question. As a result, the manager is facing a potential fine of $3.5 million, and the three decision-writers are each facing fines of more than $100,000.

Federal records indicate that the inspector general's office initially tried to bring criminal charges in the matter, but prosecutors in two states turned down the case.

Telephone Answering Problems At Social Security

Some excerpts from a report of a recent conference call between Social Security officials and the National Council of Social Security Management Associations (NCSSMA), an organization of Social Security management personnel, on answering the telephones at Social Security:

From FY 05 to FY 06 there were 1 1/2 million more calls coming in to the agents[at Social Security teleservice centers that answer Social Security's 800 number calls]. ...

Rick [Warsinskey, president of NCSSMA] reported how FO [Field Office] managers report that many calls go unanswered in the FOs. The most recent report states FO’s got 67.8 million business related calls in FY 2005. He asked if there was any possibility of getting more FO calls routed to the 800# either by Forward on Busy (FOB) or publishing the phone number in the phone book. Do the TSCs [teleservice centers] have the capacity for handling these additional calls?

OTS [Office of Telephone Services?] responded that the TSCs are beyond capacity. The targets are at 330 seconds to answer a call. The target busy rate is 10%. If we sent more calls to the TSC we could seriously degrade the service we are giving now. There is no capacity for that work in the TSC nor is there any capacity to handle it in the FO. The TSC targets are way higher than the private sector. One difference is that SSA will busy you out. Private sector will not busy you out.

Companies in the private sector have goals like: answer 80% of the calls within 20 seconds. They are competition and profit driven and that adds to their drive. SSA is no where near that. Even our 10% and 330 second targets are hard to meet. Since the beginning of FY 07, we haven’t met our target more than 20 days.

Stink Bomb At Gulfport Social Security Office

According to the South Mississippi Sun Herald, the Gulfport, MS Social Security District Office had to be evacuated yesterday because a stink bomb that created an sulfur like smell had been set off.

Draft US-Mexico Totalization Agreement Released

Back in 2004 the heads of the U.S. and Mexican Social Security agencies signed a Social Security totalization agreement. The agreement is not effective until ratified in both countries. The agreement has proven controversial in the U.S. and has never been signed by the President or submitted to Congress. The controversy in the U.S. has been more than a little peculiar since the agreement had not been released to the public. No one knew for sure what was in the agreement.

The TREA Senior Citizens League sued under the Freedom of Information Act to get the agreement released. After three and a half years of litigation, the U.S. government finally relented and the U.S.-Mexico Totalization agreement was released, apparently just before or after Christmas. One has to wonder if the timing of the release was designed to lower public attention to the agreement, but then one also has to wonder why there was any hesitancy about releasing a copy of the agreement.

The agreement appears to be similar to totalization agreements signed with other countries, which have been routinely ratified by the Senate. The controversy over this agreement has little to do with the actual agreement and much to do with the number of Mexican immigrant in the U.S. and public attitudes towards these immigrants.