I found yesterday's Social Security Subcommittee hearing a bit disappointing for the following reasons:
I do not discount the difficulty in hiring, training and housing 150 new ALJs and the staff to go with them in the next fiscal year. That will be a challenge. Hiring a good many more would be very difficult. Finding enough office space to house more would be a huge challenge. However, the Subcommittee seems to share my view that this is a crisis. In a crisis, one must do extraordinary things. I suggest that the appropriations bill for Social Security should earmark $250 million for more ALJs and the staff to go with them. This would force Social Security to treat the hearing backlog as a crisis and undertake a crash program to deal with it. I can only make a wild guess on this, but I would guess that this sort of earmark would triple the number of ALJs and support staff hired. That would make a huge difference.
So why would Commissioner Astrue be thinking of centralizing ALJs? I can think of only one reason. He likes the Medicare model. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has centralized ALJs. The reason appears to be a strong desire to control the ALJs. The feeling is that if ALJs are centralized that they can be closely managed and controlled by central office brass. This reflects a strong distrust for ALJs. This is a bad sign.
- Commissioner Astrue wants to hire only 150 new Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) with support staff to go with them in the next fiscal year. When Subcommittee members pressed him on whether this would be enough, he said that this was the most that Social Security could absorb in one year. He did not say anything like, "Under the budget I expect to get, that is the best I think we can do" or "If you can get me another $100 million, I can hire another 200 ALJs and staff to go with them." There is some uncertainty about exactly what Social Security's budget will be for the next fiscal year, but Astrue seemed certain that regardless of the budget, 150 new ALJs and staff to go with them was all he intended to hire.
I do not discount the difficulty in hiring, training and housing 150 new ALJs and the staff to go with them in the next fiscal year. That will be a challenge. Hiring a good many more would be very difficult. Finding enough office space to house more would be a huge challenge. However, the Subcommittee seems to share my view that this is a crisis. In a crisis, one must do extraordinary things. I suggest that the appropriations bill for Social Security should earmark $250 million for more ALJs and the staff to go with them. This would force Social Security to treat the hearing backlog as a crisis and undertake a crash program to deal with it. I can only make a wild guess on this, but I would guess that this sort of earmark would triple the number of ALJs and support staff hired. That would make a huge difference.
- Astrue made only a vague mention of ideas that he has for reducing the hearing backlog other than hiring more personnel. He said that he had something pending at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and that he could not say anything until he heard back from them.
- Commissioner Astrue said that he wants to centralize a good part of the ALJ corps.
So why would Commissioner Astrue be thinking of centralizing ALJs? I can think of only one reason. He likes the Medicare model. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has centralized ALJs. The reason appears to be a strong desire to control the ALJs. The feeling is that if ALJs are centralized that they can be closely managed and controlled by central office brass. This reflects a strong distrust for ALJs. This is a bad sign.
