Death Of Bill Bredenberg

]From the Florida Times-Union of Jacksonville:

Karl W. "Bill" Bredenberg, one of the founders of the Social Security Administration, died Tuesday at his Jacksonville home from multiple myeloma. He was 95.

Mr. Bredenberg served in some of the agency's top national posts. He oversaw implementation of Medicare in 1966 before coming to Jacksonville in 1970 to manage the Jacksonville office and be close to his family. ...

In an interview with the Times-Union when he retired in 1972, Mr. Bredenberg recalled there was strong resistance to the new federal program many saw as foreign to American traditions.

He recalled processing one of the first survivor claims under Social Security in 1940 from a death that occurred just a few minutes after benefits first became available.

Mr. Bredenberg served as manager of several district offices and was in charge of the New York-New Jersey region and later the Atlantic region covering the Southeast. Under the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, he was responsible for coordinating all Health, Education and Welfare activities across the nation.

He became deputy assistant commissioner for Social Security and played a key role in reorganizing the field force. With the advent of Medicare, Mr. Bredenberg set up a control center to monitor problems.

NTEU Comments On Association Of ALJs Lawsuit

The ALJ Improvement Board contains the text of what appears to be an e-mail message sent by Jim Hill, the head of the National Treasury Employees Union local that represents many of Social Security's attorney advisers, to his members. The e-mail is in response to the lawsuit brought by the Association of Administrative Law Judges and two attorneys in private practice seeking to prevent implementation of the new register from which Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) can be hired. Many of the attorney advisers have applied for the ALJ positions.

All I can say is that I find this painful to watch.

Virtual Hold At Social Security

A press release:

AKRON, Ohio, June 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Virtual Hold Technology(R), LLC (VHT), the leading developer of virtual queuing solutions, announced today that the Social Security Administration (SSA) will implement Virtual Hold in its customer contact centers. The SSA processes between 40 and 50 million calls per year from Americans who require information regarding retirement, disability and survivors benefits for workers and their families.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070619/CLTU033LOGO )

When the number of incoming calls exceeds the number of available SSA representatives, customers today must remain on hold. After implementing Virtual Hold, SSA customers will be informed of the estimated hold time and will be given the choice to hang up, yet keep their place in line. The Virtual Hold system will automatically call them back when it's their turn to speak to an SSA representative. With this new service, the customer experience is greatly enhanced. Customers are no longer tied to a phone and wasting valuable time that can be more appropriately devoted to their personal and business lives. They are free to be productive and maintain their peace of mind that their place in the queue is secure.

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Association Of ALJs Complaint

I had posted earlier about the lawsuit filed by the Association of Admininstrative Law Judges (AALJ). I had not posted a copy of the complaint even though I had seen a copy of it that was floating around. I did not post it because it appeared that it might have been a draft that was never filed.

Someone on the Association of Attorney Advisors Board has retrieved and posted the complaint off the Pacer system used in the federal courts. However, you will have to register to read it on that board. You can register ever if you are not a member of that organization.

I have retrieved the document, extracted the text and posted it on the second blog that I established as a group blog. So far, I have only gotten one response indicating an interest in the group blog, so, for now, I will use it as a place to post lengthy documents. It is in very rough shape there. There are problems because the document has segments in it which, accidentally, replicate HTML language. It seems almost impossible to get all of this out and reformat it properly, so I have just left it very raw.

The complaint does go into two subjects -- requiring current Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) to be fully licensed to practice law and the short notice given for applicants for the new register from which new ALJs will be hired. The point has been raised by others that the ALJ Association does not have standing to raise the issue about the application period for the new examination. However, the complaint has a couple of named plaintiffs who are not ALJs, but attorneys in private practice who did not find out about the application period in time to apply. They should not have a standing problem. There may be an issue of misjoinder, that is of two issues being raised by one lawsuit that are too disparate to be raised in one lawsuit, but that is a technical matter which would not defeat the case in and of itself. Joinder and misjoinder is an obscure byway of civil procedure with which I am unfamiliar.

The bigger issue here is the wisdom of the ALJ Association bringing this lawsuit at all, especially the part of it having to do with the application period. The lawsuit may be causing dissension among ALJs. Although ALJs may have a point about being misled on the necessity of maintaining bar membership, for the vast majority of ALJs who are now merely inactive bar members, becoming active again should not be much of a problem -- get a little continuing legal education and fill out a state bar form. Those who allowed their bar membership to lapse completely were taking a chance that most lawyers would find astonishing. Few other than ALJs are sympathetic to any part of the lawsuit. I do not think anyone, especially current ALJs, wants to delay hiring more ALJs. This lawsuit does has the potential to cause delay.

Commisioner Makes Many Personnel Changes

A memorandum that went out yesterday:

Date: June 25, 2007 Refer To: S7K

To: Senior Staff

From: Michael J. Astrue /s/
Commissioner

Subject: Organizational Realignments and Related Executive Personnel Assignments - INFORMATION

Let me begin with an update regarding the status of our 2008 appropriations. While one can always get last-minute surprises in Washington, it looks like we are in the best budget shape for next year that we have been in for a long time. The House appropriations funding level is $100 million over the President’s FY 2008 budget request and it appears that the Senate level will be $125 million over the President’s budget request. While we will probably have new costs to absorb, I am optimistic that most components will be able to stay at current staffing levels instead of managing more attrition. We should all be grateful to Dale Sopper, Bob Wilson and their staffs for their fine work on the appropriations bills.

In my first four months as Commissioner, I have been heavily engaged in examining the 2006 disability regulations and related business processes, examining the hearings workloads and stepping up efforts to reduce the backlogs. These reviews have led to today’s organizational realignments which will let key offices focus on their primary mission activities and return some functions to more logical organizational homes.

While I would ideally mention many individuals who have made great contributions to their organizations, I do want to offer my special thanks to Manny Vaz for his outstanding service as Acting Deputy Commissioner for Disability and Income Security Programs. He came into a challenging assignment on short notice, quickly made some important immediate decisions and provided thoughtful advice for moving the organization forward.

Over the course of the next few weeks, the following organizational and leadership changes will become effective:

The Regulations Staff will move from the Office of Disability and Income Security Programs to the Office of the Commissioner and will report to David Rust. Dean Landis, currently in the SES Candidate Development Program, will serve as the Acting Director.

The Office of International Programs will move from the Office of Disability and Income Security Programs to the Office of the Commissioner and will report to Deputy Commissioner Andrew Biggs. Rogelio Gomez remains the Associate Commissioner for International Programs.

Myrtle Habersham will move from the Office of the Chief Strategic Officer to be Senior Advisor to the Chief Information Officer. She will report to this assignment upon her return from the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight at the end of September 2007.

We are currently in negotiation with and are confident that we will reach a successful outcome that will return Dalmer Hoskins to SSA as Chief Strategic Officer. Dalmer is currently Senior Policy Advisor at AARP and prior to that the Secretary General for the International Social Security Association.

Laraine Williams will continue to serve as the Deputy Chief Strategic Officer; the strategic management function and staff remain and the organization will continue to report to the Office of the Commissioner.

The competitive sourcing function and staff from the current Office of Competitive Sourcing will move to the Office of Budget, Finance and Management.

The workforce analysis function and staff from the Office of Workforce Analysis will move to the Office of Quality Performance.

Jacy Thurmond will move from Assistant Deputy Commissioner for Disability Adjudication and Review to Senior Advisor to Deputy Commissioner Andrew Biggs.

Frank Smith has accepted a detail assignment as Acting Assistant Deputy Commissioner for Disability Adjudication and Review. While Frank is on assignment, Kristi Schmidt will serve as the Acting Regional Chief Counsel for OGC in Kansas City.

Eileen McDaniel will be the Associate Commissioner for Management, Office of Disability Adjudication and Review.

Pat Jonas will move from Assistant Deputy Commissioner for Disability and Income Security Programs to be Director of the National Hearing Center, ODAR.

Marianna LaCanfora will move from Deputy Associate Commissioner for Public Service and Operations Support (Operations) to be Assistant Deputy Commissioner for Disability and Income Security Programs.

Alan Lane will move from the Deputy Chief Quality Officer, Office of Quality Performance, to be Associate Commissioner for Income Security Programs, ODISP.

Fritz Streckewald will move from Assistant Deputy Commissioner for Disability and Income Security Programs to be the Deputy Chief Quality Officer and Chair of the Immigration Reform Task Force.

Pam Mazerski will move from Associate Commissioner for Program Development and Research, ODISP, to be Associate Commissioner for Quality Support, OQP. Richard Balkus, who has been the Acting Associate Commissioner for Disability and Income Assistance Policy, OP, will serve as Acting Associate Commissioner for Program Development and Research. Susan Wilschke will serve as Acting Associate Commissioner for Disability and Income Assistance Policy.

Mary Chatel will report to the Associate Commissioner for Disability Programs and will be leading outreach activity, including quarterly public hearings in the area of compassionate allowances and listing improvements.

David Morado has been appointed as the Regional Chief Counsel in OGC’s Seattle office. David joins the Agency from the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Seattle General Counsel’s office and brings a wealth of litigation experience to this assignment. Please join me in welcoming David to SSA.

Web Phillips, Associate Commissioner for Legislative Development in the Office of Legislation and Congressional Affairs, has announced that he will retire July 3, 2007.
Tom Parrott, currently in the SES Candidate Development Program, will serve as the
Acting Associate Commissioner upon Web’s retirement.

Linda Hill will move from Deputy Chief of Staff in the Office of the Commissioner to be Senior Advisor to the Deputy Commissioner for Legislation and Congressional Affairs.

Upon Dale Sopper’s retirement August 3, Mary Glenn-Croft will be the Deputy Commissioner for Budget, Finance and Management.

Roger McDonnell will move from Associate Commissioner for Public Service and Operations Support to Assistant Deputy Commissioner for Operations.

Mark Blatchford will move from Associate Commissioner for Automation Support to Associate Commissioner for Public Service and Operations Support.

Michelle King will serve as Acting Deputy Associate Commissioner for Public Service and Operations Support.

Debbi Russell will move from the Office of Retirement and Survivors Insurance Systems (Systems) to be Associate Commissioner for Automation Support.

Please remember in commenting upon this that the individuals changing jobs are career employees.

Want To Be A Blogger?

I am starting a separate group blog for others interesting in blogging on Social Security issues. Read on if you might be interested in being one of the bloggers on this group blog.

I have commented here about the relatively small number of blogs on the topic of Social Security. With over 50,000 employees at Social Security, perhaps 15,000 to 20,000 at the state disability determination agencies, 3,000 plus attorneys and non-attorneys actively engaged in representing Social Security claimants, and millions of Social Security claimants and beneficiaries, one might expect a more active Social Security blogging community. There is a message board for those who represent Social Security claimants and another message board for those interested in issues concerning Social Security's Administrative Law Judges and an online group for Social Security claimants, but these are far from covering the waterfront of those who are interested in Social Security topics.

Perhaps, you have thought about blogging about Social Security, but did not think anyone would read what you had written. Perhaps you did not want to start a blog because you did not think you would be able to post on a regular basis. Perhaps, you just did not know where to start. A group blog helps with all of these problems.

If you are interested, use the feedback button on the right side of this page to e-mail me. You can post under your own name or under a screen name. (Just do not post from your office if you are a Social Security employee.) I could use a number of bloggers for this group blog with differing backgrounds and viewpoints. After some minor formalities, I authorize you to post on the group blog. You then post what you want, when you want to post it.

Remember, although I will not be posting on this group blog myself, I still own it. I can take down offensive posts and ban those who post them. In the end, on this group blog, I make the rules, I interpret the rules, I can change the rules whenever I want and I enforce the rules. There is no right of appeal. Of course, you can always start you own individual blog anytime you want and put up with essentially no rules.