The House Social Security Subcommittee has posted the written statements of witnesses at today's hearing on employment eligibility verification systems, but no recording of the hearing. I have gotten a report that there are technical problems which may prevent the Subcommittee from ever posting a recording of the hearing.
Remember that however technical and boring this hearing topic may seem, that if Social Security has to start issuing biometric Social Security cards that the agency will rapidly become a very different place with a much expanded staff. Issuing Social Security cards may become the main task of the Social Security Administration and Social Security field offices may start to resemble drivers license offices.
The only statement from a government witness about additional staffing needs at Social Security came from an official of the Department of Homeland Security who said this in his written statment:
It is striking that the Social Security officials who testified did not mention implementation difficulties in their written statements and, indeed, that relatively low level officials were sent to testify about something that may have a profound effect upon the Social Security Administration. There seems to have been a deliberate effort to downplay implementation difficulties.
Note that the Commissioner of Social Security has his own full time White House Liaison -- for the first time in the history of the Social Security Administration, as best I can tell. The immigration bill is a high priority for the White House. A detailed assessment of Social Security's implementation difficulties for a new employment eligibility verification system may not be what the White House wanted the Subcommittee to hear.
Remember that however technical and boring this hearing topic may seem, that if Social Security has to start issuing biometric Social Security cards that the agency will rapidly become a very different place with a much expanded staff. Issuing Social Security cards may become the main task of the Social Security Administration and Social Security field offices may start to resemble drivers license offices.
The only statement from a government witness about additional staffing needs at Social Security came from an official of the Department of Homeland Security who said this in his written statment:
According to SSA officials, the number of new staff required would depend on both the legislative requirements for implementing mandatory EEV and the effectiveness of efforts USCIS has under way to decrease the need for individuals to visit SSA field offices. For this reason, SSA officials told us they have not yet estimated how many additional staff they would need for a mandatory EEV.Tyler Moran of the National Immigration Law Center and Sue Meisinger of the Human Resource Initiative for a Legal Workforce, who testified at the hearing, cautioned about Social Security's implementation difficulties at a time when Social Security field offices are already overburdened. Why is someone from Department of Homeland Security and these other witnesse talking about this, but not the witesses from Social Security itself?
It is striking that the Social Security officials who testified did not mention implementation difficulties in their written statements and, indeed, that relatively low level officials were sent to testify about something that may have a profound effect upon the Social Security Administration. There seems to have been a deliberate effort to downplay implementation difficulties.
Note that the Commissioner of Social Security has his own full time White House Liaison -- for the first time in the history of the Social Security Administration, as best I can tell. The immigration bill is a high priority for the White House. A detailed assessment of Social Security's implementation difficulties for a new employment eligibility verification system may not be what the White House wanted the Subcommittee to hear.
