The Appropriations Standoff Continues -- White House In No Mood To Compromise

Congressional Democrats have been attempting to lump together the Labor-HHS appropriations bill, which includes funding for the Social Security Administration, with the Department of Veterans Affairs and Military Construction appropriations bills in hopes of getting enough votes for a veto-proof majority for the bill in each house of Congress.

The Hill reports that this ploy did not work. Senate Republicans were unanimous in opposition, preventing the bills from being combined. The Associated Press reports that the Labor-HHS appropriations bill by itself then passed the Senate by 56-37, less than the two-thirds majority that would be needed to override the veto that President Bush has promised.

This increases the chances of a prolonged standoff over Social Security's appropriations, which would force the agency to operate under a continuing funding resolution until well into the next calendar year. That would mean virtually no hiring of Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) or anyone else and limited or no overtime for a long time to come.

Here is a discouraging quote on the situation from the Los Angeles Times:

Rep. David R. Obey (D-Wis.), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, recently invited White House budget director Jim Nussle over to the Capitol to talk about how to avert what could become the biggest budget showdown in years.

"We went out on our balcony and had a drink and talked for a while," Obey said. But the White House was in no mood to compromise, according to Obey, who said the budget director told him, "As I go around the White House, I don't find anybody in any quarters interested in any kind of a compromise at all."

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If you look to the right on this page, you will see a "Live Traffic Feed." I do not know whether it is worth keeping, but it seems interesting for the moment. It shows some limited information on those recently accessing this website. It shows the reader's geographic location. It shows "arrived on Social Security News" if the person came directly to this blog. It would show the name of a particular post if the person came directly to that post. If the person came here by clicking on a link somewhere else, the referring source is shown. If the person leaves this blog by clicking on a link here, that fact is shown.

If you are receiving this by e-mail, you may need to drop by the website from time to time to see things like this.

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County Cannot Use Child's Social Security Money

From the Daily Comet (and no, I have no idea why a Louisiana newspaper is reporting this case from North Carolina):

RALEIGH, N.C. A county child welfare agency must use a teenager's Social Security benefits to pay the mortgage and upkeep on a home he inherited, and the agency can't use the money in its budget, the state Court of Appeals ruled in a decision released Tuesday. ...

Attorney Lewis Pitts of Legal Aid of North Carolina, which represented the teen, said the ruling means a state judge "has the power to order (the Department of Social Services) to use his money to pay his mortgage and not stick it in their pocket."

Pitts said the case was the first to go to court in the state. He also said it is common across North Carolina and in other states for Social Security benefits to be used in a similar way.

Continuing Resolution -- Until February?

From Government Executive:

Acknowledging Congress will be in session for at least two weeks next month, House and Senate leaders are preparing a continuing resolution [to fund the federal government since Congress and the President have been unable to agree upon a budget] to last through Dec. 14, although extending that by another week is not out of the question given the heavy remaining workload. ...

If Congress cannot get its work done in time for Christmas, as a fallback, federal agencies have already been instructed to plan as if Congress will eventually pass a CR running through Feb. 15, sources said. ...

There has been speculation that Democrats are preparing to quietly acquiesce in large part to Bush's overall spending limits, with perhaps some flexibility for veterans' health funding, in order to complete the appropriations bills this year.

Additional domestic funds could then be attached to Bush's new war-funding request early next year, the thinking goes.

The Social Security Administration is in a hiring freeze at the moment and is unable to authorize any overtime because it is working under a continuing funding resolution.

SSA Releases Annual Statistical Report

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has released its Annual Statistical Report for 2006, chock full of almost every bit of statistical information you could want about Social Security, but with little data about how SSA itself is operating.

Service Problems In Idaho Falls

From KIDK (or view the video):

There's a problem at your local social security office and its affecting your service.

We need the social security office in Idaho Falls to change our names, get a new social security card and request benefits for retirement or disability, but when I called to set up an appointment I spent about one hour getting no where.

I made my first attempt to reach our local social security office at 10:30 in the morning, and after 20 minutes of getting a busy signal, I finally got through, not to a person but a recording.

Then I sat on hold for just under ten minutes, and was transferred to an answering machine.

40 minutes later, I got frustrated, and tried the call, hang up, call again immediately trick but fifteen minutes later that hadn't worked either.

It wasn't until after about 20 minutes later that someone answered.

The clerk I was speaking to promised me he would have his supervisor call me as soon as she was free.

Five hours later the supervisor finally called me back, and told me my complaint had been transferred to their regional office, and that she would not be answering my questions.

Two days later Joy Chang from Seattle called me. Chang told me that if I wanted to talk to someone, calling my local office was a bad idea.

"We try to give people alternatives such as calling our national 800 number their primary function is to answer phones," says Chang.

Federal Times On Social Security Staffing

From the Federal Times (emphasis added):

The Social Security Administration has a problem.

The first baby boomers started applying for Social Security retirement benefits last month, signaling what is certain to be a huge demand for the agency’s services.

Yet the agency has its lowest staffing levels in 35 years.

SSA expects its staffing to dip to fewer than 60,000 by next September, spokesman Mark Lassiter said last week. That’s the lowest level since 1973, the year before Congress ordered the agency to ramp up staffing to handle a new supplemental security income program, which provides cash for elderly, blind and disabled people to pay for food, clothing and shelter. ...

“This is a cause for concern,” Lassiter said. “We’re seeing a significant increase in the number of disability claims in recent years directly because of the baby boomers. And we can’t do any hiring.”

Lassiter said SSA imposed a hiring freeze at the start of the current fiscal year. Congress has not yet passed any spending bills, so the agency — like all others in government — is operating under a continuing resolution that keeps its funding at the 2007 level of $9.3 billion. ...

To whittle down its backlog of disability claims cases, the agency plans to hire more administrative law judges: 150 by spring and 125 more in 2009. SSA wants to have 1,250 judges in all by September.

The agency expects to lose about 65 of its 1,040 administrative law judges to attrition over the next two years. [Less than 3% annual attrition among a group of employees who, on average, are probably in their mid-50s! Who are you kidding?] Lassiter said SSA also will hire 92 support staffers this fiscal year to assist the judges.

The agency plans to replace only one of every two state disability determination service (DDS) employees who leave in 2008, Lassiter said. These SSA-funded offices decide whether people claiming severe disabilities should receive benefits.

About 1,500 of the 15,000 DDS employees nationwide are expected to retire in 2008, and 750 are expected to be replaced.

250 More ALJs?

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

The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on Tuesday on the conference report on the FY 2008 appropriations bill for the Departments of L-HHS-ED [Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Department, but also includes the Social Security Administration]. Should the conference report on the Labor-HHS-Ed appropriations bill be passed in the House, the Senate is expected to vote on the bill this week. House and Senate Democratic leadership have yet to announce a final strategy on which appropriations bills, singly or in combination, to send to the President for his signature or veto.

The Labor-HHS-Ed conference report is expected to include an appropriation of nearly $9.9 billion for the Social Security Administration’s funding to cover administration of its programs, known as its Limitation on Administrative Expenses (LAE). This amount is $576 million above the FY 2007 level and $275 million above the President’s request for FY 2008. Much of the increase will simply allow SSA to keep pace with inflation in office leases, security expenses, and employee salary and benefits costs. In addition, the National Council of Social Security Management Associations predicts that the Conference Report amount will allow SSA to hire about 250 more administrative law judges to help reduce the backlog in hearings for claimants with disabilities.