Social security benefits and supplemental security income:
Cost-of-living increase, and other determinations, E7-21070
This may be a boring technical notice about non-discretionary matters, but it could contain something more interesting. I do not want to get people excited, but it could also contain an increase in the attorney fee cap.
Harkin (for Lieberman/Dodd) Amendment No. 3418 (to Amendment No. 3325), to prohibit the use of funds to close a field office of the Social Security Administration before submission of a report justifying the closure. Passed by unanimous consent
Ensign amendment No. 3342 (to amendment No. 3325), to prohibit the use of funds to administer Social Security benefit payments under a totalization agreement with Mexico. Passed 91-3Ensign amendment No. 3352 (to amendment No. 3325), to prohibit the use of funds to process claims based on illegal work for purposes of receiving Social Security benefits. Passed 92-3
| Oct. 23, 2007 | Senate Roll Call Vote 389 |
| Bingaman, D-N.M., amendment no. 3440 to the Harkin, D-Iowa, substitute amendment no. 3325. The Bingaman amendment would increase by $150 million the amount appropriated for the Social Security Administration's administrative expenses account, offset by a reduction from the Medicare Physician Assistant and Quality Initiative Fund. The substitute would appropriate $605.5 billion in fiscal 2008, including $149.9 billion in discretionary spending, for the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS) and Education and for related agencies. It would provide $63 billion for the Education Department, $14.9 billion for the Labor Department and $479.1 billion for HHS. |
| Adopted by a vote of 88-6: | ||
| | Republicans | 42-6 |
| | Democrats | 44-0 (Northern Democrats 39-0, Southern Democrats 5-0) |
| | Independents | 2-0 |
| YEAS (88) | ||
| REPUBLICANS (42) | ||
| Alexander, L. (TN) | Dole (NC) | McConnell (KY) |
| Barrasso (WY) | Domenici (NM) | Murkowski (AK) |
| Bennett (UT) | Ensign (NV) | Roberts (KS) |
| Bond (MO) | Enzi (WY) | Sessions, J. (AL) |
| Brownback (KS) | Graham (SC) | Shelby ( |
| Bunning (KY) | Grassley (IA) | Smith, G. (OR) |
| Chambliss (GA) | Hagel (NE) | Snowe (ME) |
| Cochran (MS) | Hatch (UT) | Specter (PA) |
| Coleman (MN) | Hutchison (TX) | Stevens (AK) |
| Collins (ME) | Isakson (GA) | Sununu (NH) |
| Corker (TN) | Kyl (AZ) | Thune (SD) |
| Cornyn (TX) | Lott (MS) | Vitter (LA) |
| Craig (ID) | Lugar (IN) | Voinovich (OH) |
| Crapo (ID) | | Warner (VA) |
| DEMOCRATS (44) | ||
| Akaka (HI) | Feinstein (CA) | Murray (WA) |
| Baucus, M. (MT) | Harkin (IA) | Nelson, Ben (NE) |
| Bayh (IN) | Inouye (HI) | Nelson, Bill (FL) |
| Bingaman (NM) | Johnson, Tim (SD) | Pryor (AR) |
| Boxer (CA) | Kerry (MA) | Reed, J. (RI) |
| Brown, S. (OH) | Klobuchar (MN) | Reid, H. (NV) |
| Byrd (WV) | Kohl (WI) | Rockefeller (WV) |
| Cantwell (WA) | Landrieu (LA) | Salazar, K. (CO) |
| Cardin (MD) | Lautenberg (NJ) | Schumer (NY) |
| Carper (DE) | Leahy (VT) | Stabenow (MI) |
| Casey (PA) | Levin, C. (MI) | Tester (MT) |
| Conrad (ND) | Lincoln (AR) | Webb (VA) |
| Dorgan (ND) | McCaskill (MO) | Whitehouse (RI) |
| Durbin (IL) | Menendez (NJ) | Wyden (OR) |
| Feingold (WI) | Mikulski (MD) | |
| INDEPENDENTS (2) | ||
| Lieberman (CT) | Sanders (VT) | |
| NAYS (6) | ||
| REPUBLICANS (6) | ||
| Allard (CO) | Coburn (OK) | Gregg (NH) |
| Burr (NC) | DeMint (SC) | Inhofe (OK) |
| DEMOCRATS (0) | ||
| | ||
| INDEPENDENTS (0) | ||
| | ||
| NOT VOTING (6) | ||
| REPUBLICANS (1) | ||
| McCain (AZ) ? | | |
| DEMOCRATS (5) | ||
| Biden (DE) ? | Dodd (CT) ? | Obama (IL) ? |
| Clinton (NY) ? | Kennedy, E. (MA) ? | |
| INDEPENDENTS (0) | ||
A press release just issued by Social Security:
Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, today announced that the Social Security Administration published new rules that update its medical listings for people filing for disability benefits based on digestive disorders, including diseases of the liver, stomach and colon. Social Security’s medical listings are one of the key elements used in determining whether or not someone qualifies for disability benefits. The new rules are a key step in the Commissioner’s initiative to update and improve the medical listings used to evaluate people with disabilities. For the first time, the agency will use a composite of quantitative measures to ensure that people with severe liver disease receive benefits far more quickly than in the past.
“Social Security’s disability examiners are working with digestive listings that do not accurately reflect advances in the diagnosis and treatment of digestive disorders,” Commissioner Astrue said. “As a result many cases that should be resolved quickly are not being determined appropriately. The changes to our digestive listings are among the many steps we are taking in our effort to bring about accurate allowances for people who apply for Social Security disability.”
The changes to the digestive listings reflect state of the art advances in medical knowledge, treatment, and methods of evaluating digestive disorders and Social Security’s own program experience. In addition, Social Security has developed a new disability calculator tool that will be used for the evaluation of chronic liver disease in adults and children. This tool is the first of its kind used by the agency to help evaluate whether or not someone qualifies for disability.“By improving our listings and predictors for digestive disorders, we can more appropriately identify those individuals who should qualify for disability benefits,” Commissioner Astrue noted. “Making these types of updates is one of the ways we can improve our service to the American people.”
While the agency is expanding its listings to include more digestive impairments, it is also removing some prior listings that no longer appropriately identify individuals who are disabled -- for example, the listing for peptic ulcer disease, which is rarely disabling. To learn more about the effects of various digestive disorders, please visit www.health.nih.gov/search.asp/5. To learn more about Social Security’s disability program visit www.socialsecurity.gov/disability.
| Yes (35) | 57% |
| |
| No (20) | 33% |
| |
| Don't Know/No opinion (6) | 10% |
|
This is America and it simply is not acceptable for Americans to wait years for a final decision on a claim. ...
In FY [fiscal year] 2009, we fully expect that the number of disability hearings pending will decrease. SSA's most optimistic projections are that the number of hearings pending will be reduced dramatically by FY 2013 under my plan ...
Hiring additional ALJs is an essential element in a successful plan for reducing the backlog. ...
What SSA will accomplish in FY 2008 is to build a firm foundation with automation improvements, ALJ hiring, and other initiatives described here, so that dramatic improvements will be achieved in FY 2009 -- a real turning of the tide. ...
