Budget Markup Today

The House Appropriations Committee marks up the Labor-HHS Appropriations bill, which includes the Social Security Administration, today at 10:00. The markup session is available in streaming video.

AARP Lobbies For Social Security Budget

I have suggested in the past that the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) seems to have only a limited interest in what happens at the Social Security Administration. Despite having a high degree of influence they have mostly seemed to be missing in action when it comes to any issue other than Social Security funding -- and they mumble on that issue.

In fairness, I must say that the National Journal is reporting that the AARP is lobbying for more funds for Social Security. It is good to see AARP paying attention to something other than selling insurance. I hope they have some influence.

Social Security To Spend Money On "Disability Mentoring Day"

A contracting notice published by the Social Security Administration:

The Social Security Administration (SSA) intends to award a sole source purchase order to the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), located at 1629 K Street NW, Suite 503, Washington, DC 20006-1634 to provide consultative services that will assist SSA in its outreach efforts during the 2007 Disability Mentoring Day (DMD). The DMD is commemorated on the third Wednesday of every October. DMD is a large-scale effort designed to promote career development for students and other job seekers with disabilities through hands-on career exploration, job shadowing, internship or employment opportunities, and matching of mentee/mentor relationships. AAPD is a nonprofit organization that is familiar with SSA's target population and can provide the personnel, materials, services, and equipment necessary to assure the success of SSA's outreach efforts during DMD. SSA believes that AAPD is the only source qualified to meet our needs. This notice is for informational purposes only and is neither a request for quotation nor an announcement of a forthcoming solicitation. Interested parties that believe they are capable of providing these services can submit a capability statement to Tonya Saunders via e-mail at tonya.saunders@ssa.gov no later than 2:00 p.m. EST, July 12, 2007. The Government will consider all information from responsible sources, but a determination by the Government not to compete this action is solely at the discretion of the Government.

Let me guess that the American Association of People with Disabilities has some friends in high places. Otherwise, I cannot explain why an agency strapped for funds would spend good money on such frippery. This has nothing to do with Social Security's mission, which is to pay cash benefits to certain people. Social Security is not in the disability mentoring business.

Bill On SSI For Certain Immigrants To Move Forward

From the Capitol Insider put out by the Disability Policy Collaboration:

The House will consider the SSI Extension for Elderly and Disabled Refugees Act, H.R. 2608, on the suspension calendar on Wednesday. Sponsored by Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA), the bill would extend the eligibility for Supplemental Security Income for 2 additional years for certain refugees, asylees, and other humanitarian immigrants who have applications for naturalization pending. Under current law, the limit on receipt of SSI is 7 years for those who have not become citizens, but the backlogs in processing naturalization case have made it difficult for many to be processed within the time limit. The bill would temporarily allow a 2-year extension of SSI benefits from Fiscal Year 2008 through 2010. Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR) has sponsored a related bill in the Senate, S. 821.

No Match Letters May Gain Importance

Greg Siskind has an important blog on immigration law. He is reporting that the Department of Homeland Security will soon publish a regulation telling employers that they cannot ignore a "no-match" letter from Social Security notifying them that the name and Social Security number of one of their employees do not match. The employer will be considered to be in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act if they do not resolve the issue within certain time limits. If true, this would put the Social Security Administration in a place that it does not want to be -- in the forefront of the battle against illegal immigration. If nothing else, it would create plenty of business for Social Security when many women who never got around to it in the past have to suddenly notify Social Security that their names changed when they got married. This is not what Social Security's understaffed field offices need.

NCSSMA President On Social Security Funding

Richard Warsinskey, the President of the National Council of Social Security Management Associations (NCSSMA), an organization of management personnel, has written a commentary in the Federal Times on Social Security's backlogs and the agency's need for more funding and more personnel. Let me excerpt one paragraph:

SSA will lose about 4,000 positions from the beginning of fiscal 2006 to the end of fiscal 2007. This will leave the agency at its lowest level of staffing since the early 1970s, which is before SSA took over the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. The largest proportion of these losses has been in the field — nearly 2,500 positions.

NPRM ON QDD

Social Security has published the Notice of Proposed Rule-Making (NPRM) on Quick Disability Determinations (QDD). The NPRM would remove the 20 day time limit on making QDDs and take QDDs out of special units in the experiment that had been underway in the Boston region. In other words, QDDs will identical to the process which has been in place since forever for placing the most seriously disabled on benefits very quickly. This NPRM is completely meaningless for any part of the country other than the Boston region and has almost no meaning for that region.

Press Release On QDD

A press release from Social Security:

Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, today announced that Social Security will publish a proposed regulation to extend the quick disability determination (QDD) process to all State disability determination services. The process is now operating in the Boston region, comprised of the states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. Under QDD, a predictive model analyzes specific elements of data within the electronic claims file to identify claims where there is a high potential that the claimant is disabled and where evidence of the claimant’s allegations can be quickly and easily obtained.

“At my confirmation hearing, I promised to look closely at the disability changes we were testing in New England and implement nationally those things that were working well,” Commissioner Astrue said. “We have seen the success of the QDD model in identifying cases that are most likely to be allowed. To date, 97 percent of the cases identified have been decided within 21 days and the average decision time is 11 days. We plan to build on the success of QDD by expanding it to all States because it is both efficient and compassionate for us to do so.”

Social Security currently receives more than 2.5 million new disability cases each year. In the Boston region, QDD cases constituted slightly less than 3 percent of all new cases because the model does not yet cull a wide enough variety of diseases. Commissioner Astrue has committed to expanding the number of cases that can be decided through the model as high as possible while maintaining accuracy.

“The length of time many people wait for a disability decision is unacceptable,” Astrue said. “I am committed to a process that is as fair and speedy as possible. While there is no single magic bullet, with better systems, better business processes and better ways of fast-tracking targeted cases, we can greatly improve the service we provide this vulnerable population.”

The proposed regulation provides for a 30 day comment period. It is on display at the Federal Register today and, starting tomorrow, can be read online at www.regulations.gov. For more information about Social Security’s disability programs, go to www.socialsecurity.gov

I am still waiting for someone to tell me how this is really different from what has been going on for years.