What Astrue Hasn't Done

I try to look at what is not happening as well as what is happening, since this tells us about options that have been rejected, or at least deferred. Here is a list of things that Commissioner Astrue has not done so far that some might have expected him to do in the five months he has been in office:

• Kill the proposed age regulations -- Social Security still has proposed regulations pending that would increase the age categories of the grid regulations by two years. This would have a devastating effect upon Social Security disability claimants. It would be politically suicidal for Astrue to adopt these regulations. Even former Commissioner Barnhart who had the proposal published said she did not want to adopt them, but was forced to propose them due to budgetary pressure from the Office of Management and Budget. Astrue has said he is not planning to go ahead with the proposal at this time, yet it sits there, ready to be adopted by Astrue or any future Commisioner upon no more than a few days notice. I have this vision of Astrue deciding to resign when President Bush leaves office, but adopting the age regulations as a parting shot. That is unlikely to happen, but Astrue knows well that he would make many people more comfortable by officially withdrawing that Notice of Proposed Rule-Making but he has not done so. Why?
• Increase attorney fee cap -- The cap on fees for attorneys and others who represent Social Security claimants has stayed at $5,300 for more than six years despite significant inflation. For the sake of fairness, Astrue ought to raise the cap. He has been asked to do so. It would take little effort to do so, but he has not. Why?
• Lobby for SSA's budget -- Under former Commissioner Barnhart the Social Security Administration had come up with a proposed budget for the next fiscal year of about $10.4 billion. Social Security really needs the money, yet Astrue has lobbied for the much lower budget proposed by President Bush. Why?
• Show any sign of independence from White House -- Connected to the last item is the question of why Astrue has shown no sign of independence from President Bush. By statute, the Commissioner of Social Security is independent, yet Astrue has a person in his office working full time as White House liaison. As far as I can tell, no Commissioner has ever had an employee in such a role. Even in avoiding talk of privatizing Social Security, Astrue is doing the White House's bidding, since Astrue said during his confirmation hearing that this subject was just about the first thing that came up when he was talking with the White House about the nomination and they wanted him to stay away from privatization. Why not show some sign of independence from such an unpopular president?
• Go ahead with senior attorney without OMB blessing -- Astrue wants to go ahead with this. He needs to go ahead with it, yet decided to propose it as a regulation which lets the White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) veto it -- and it looks as if they probably have vetoed it. Why not just call senior attorney decisions reconsideration decisions? Astrue could do that quickly without OMB approval, yet he has not done so.
  
• Announce any plan that goes beyond FY 2008 -- Social Security needs a long term plan to deal with its workload -- a plan that calls for a lot more personnel. I am not interested in any "grand plan" like Barnhart's Disability Service Improvement (DSI) fiasco, but I would like to see some sign of long term planning. It may be too soon for a full blown plan, but why is there no sign of work on it?
  
• Decide what to do about DSI in Region I -- Astrue has clearly decided not to go national with DSI, which is now in use in Social Security's Boston region (Region I). However, something has to be done about DSI in Region I. Federal Reviewing Officer (FedRO) morale has to be terrible. Many FedROs must be looking for other jobs. Productivity must be awful. Cases are in limbo. It is a situation that cries out for rapid resolution, but there is no sign of a plan for unraveling DSI in Region I. Why not?

Off Topic: Can We Get SSA To Go For This?

Take a look at this report from Mark Kleiman on a proposal by the European Commission to ban the wearing of neckties by its employees during the summertime as a means of saving money on air conditioning. Can we get Social Security to go for this, maybe even banning male attorneys representing Social Security claimants from wearing ties to hearings during the summer?

A Couple Of Items From Senate Appropriations Committee Report

Here are three interesting excerpts from the Senate Appropriations Committee report on the Labor-HHS Appropriations bill.

The Committee requests a letter report not later than August 24, 2007, on current and planned initiatives to improve the disability process, including the status and results of the disability service improvement process being piloted in the New England region and efforts to improve the hearing process. ...

The budget request includes bill language earmarking not less than $263,970,000 of funds available within this account for continuing disability reviews and redeterminations of eligibility under Social Security's disability programs. An additional $213,000,000 earmark for continuing disability reviews and redeterminations of eligibility also was proposed in the budget request. ...

Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have reported that Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is as disabling as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, end-stage renal failure, and multiple sclerosis. The Committee has encouraged SSA officials to continue the education of adjudicators at all levels about the functional impact of CFS to ensure that they remain up to date on the appropriate evaluation of disability that results from this condition. Within 60 days of enactment of this act, the Committee requests a report from SSA on these ongoing educational activities as well any plans to update the existing policy ruling on CFS, SSR 99-2p.

Note that the Senate bill would give Social Security $125 million more than requested by the President, but would earmark about $51 million of that to continuing disability reviews, meaning that there would only be about $74 million more than in the President's budget for reducing backlogs. Apparently, CDRs are a much higher priority for the Senate than backlogs.

Cuts Down On The Walk In Traffic

I think Social Security employees mostly deserve praise for the hard work they do under circumstances which are often difficult, but they occasionally screw up. Here is an article about an unfortunate screw-up from the Daily Sentinel in Nocogdoches, TX:

The new scaled-down version of the local Social Security office is now open, but unless you already know where it is, good luck trying to find it.

Those who didn't hear about the closing and set off for a quick trip to the Old Mize Factory office on North Street, where the office has been for years, could be in for quite an adventure.

The parking lot of the former North Street location was buzzing with people Tuesday afternoon — people who weren't sure where to go. Drivers would pull up to where the sign was, get out and try the locked door. They'd look around for some sort of "closed" or "moved" sign, which wasn't there, and then use both hands to block the sun as they tried to peer inside the vacant building for clues before leaving to walk around the Old Mize Factory and ask for directions.

The Nacogdoches Economic Development Corporation, which is located in the same building, actually produced their own sign and put it outside their entrance, with a new map and a photo of the new location of the Social Security office, so people would know where to go. But many cars came and went without seeing NEDCO's flyer. ...

As it turns out, the Nacogdoches Social Security office has moved into an apparently unmarked building in a small retail strip center between the former H-E-B grocery and Ultrafit, in the slot formerly occupied by Accessories Unlimited. The large sign at the top of the building remains blank, but if you manage to figure out that it's the right place, and see through all the cars parked up next to the building, you might catch a glimpse of the Social Security seal through the dark tinted windows of the front door.

Action Towards Hiring ALJs -- But A Long Way To Go

There are multiple reports on the ALJ Improvement board and the CONNECT board that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is making progress on sorting out the hundreds of applications to become Administrative Law Judges (ALJs). Some applicants have been told that they do not meet the minimum requirements.

Do not expect to see any ALJs hired off a new register holding Social Security hearings soon. OPM has indicated that it does not expect to have a new register ready until late October. There are strong signs of an impending budget showdown between Congress and the White House that will delay new funding for Social Security. Until it gets a new budget, Social Security is not likely to be hiring new ALJs. This is a problem that could drag on for a long time after the beginning of the new fiscal year on October 1. A government shutdown is entirely possible. Even after the budget is finally approved, Social Security has to interview ALJ candidates and make decisions on hires. Those newly hired will then go to training for eight weeks, if I recall correctly, and most will then have to move themselves and their families to new cities. I do not expect new ALJs to be holding Social Security hearings until next summer. It takes time for new ALJs to become productive. In the meantime, current ALJs retire and die each month.

Federal Managers Association On Social Security Budget

A press release from the Federal Managers Association:

CONGRESS SERVES THE SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION YET ANOTHER FUNDING BLOW

Meager increase in funding over FY07 level will do nothing to eliminate growing backlog of disability cases

Alexandria, VA – Representing the managers and supervisors in the Social Security Administration (SSA) Office of Disability Adjudication and Review (ODAR), the Federal Managers Association (FMA) is extremely disappointed in the level of funding provided by the House and Senate Appropriations Committees for SSA administrative expenses.

In his FY08 budget request, the President proposed $9.597 billion for SSA Limitation on Administrative Expenses. While this is an increase from his FY07 proposal, and far greater than Congress appropriated for FY07, it still falls short of the SSA Commissioner’s request and prevents the agency from meeting its backlog challenges. Before the end of her six year term, Commissioner Barnhart developed a Service Delivery Budget through 2012 to provide a framework for making decisions on needed improvements in service delivery and fiscal stewardship, and the requisite staffing to accomplish both. The Commissioner proposed $10.44 billion for administrative expenses for FY08.

Previously, Congress approved $10.1 billion in SSA salaries and expenses for fiscal year 2008 in the Budget Resolution; an amount which would allow the agency to tackle the growing disability claims backlog. However, today, the House Appropriations Committee approved only $100 million in funding for SSA administrative expenses over the President’s request. In June, the Senate Appropriations Committee went slightly further and allocated $125 million above the budget request.

“We at FMA believe that the $10.1 billion in funding agreed to in the budget resolution will allow the agency to fulfill its mission in serving the American people. SSA needs the additional funds to address the severe backlog in disability hearing requests,” commented FMA National President Darryl Perkinson in a letter to the House Appropriations Committee last month. “The President’s request is insufficient as the number of disability claims pending, as well as the average time to process those claims, will rise if the President’s request is appropriated.”

Currently, in the Office of Disability Adjudication and Review, there exists a backlog of over 745,110 requests for a hearing, an increase of 433,152 requests since the start of fiscal year 2000. With the meager increase over fiscal year 2007 funding levels, SSA will only be able to replace roughly 1,000 of the 4,000 employees lost in the last three years. The funding provided by Congress will slow the rapid growth of the backlog; however, it will not allow the agency to begin work on wrestling with this problem.

“The solution to the problem is simple – more staff will allow SSA to deliver its services to the American people in the best possible manner,” continued Perkinson. “However, this cannot be done without adequate funding from Congress. The programs administered by SSA provide benefits to more than 50 million Americans. We, at FMA, believe that the level of funding proposed by the Appropriations Committees falls too short of the mark for SSA to serve its customers efficiently.”

House Appropriations Committee Press Release

Below is part of the House Appropriation Committee's press release on the funding bill it reported out today that covers Social Security:

Social Security Administration (SSA). The bill provides $9.7 billion for the administrative expenses of SSA, a $401 million or 4.3 percent increase over fiscal year 2007 and $100 million above the President’s request in nominal dollars. In real terms, however, the increase is just $221 million or 2.4 percent over last year’s level. SSA provides monthly cash benefits to nearly 55 million Americans each year, and the increase will help to improve processing times for initial disability claims and hearings, which have increased in recent years. It will also help to reduce the backlog of disability cases as well as allow SSA to process additional disability reviews and SSI eligibility determinations.

I am hearing reports that this may come up on the floor of the House of Representatives within the next week.

House Apprppriations Committee Mark Up

I was not able to watch it, but I am told that the House Appropriations Committee did not add any additional money for Social Security's budget in the bill they have reported out. In their bill, Social Security is at about $100 million over the President's recommendation, but still hundreds of millions of dollars below what the agency says it needs.