Appropriations Wrangles Continue

From Fox News:

House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., had been working with moderate Republicans to try to generate momentum for a catchall spending bill that split the differences between increases sought by Democrats and the strict budget submitted by President Bush in February.

But after a White House veto threat over the weekend, a frustrated Obey said he would rip up the compromise bill and devise a new one using the strict spending ceiling set by Bush — but would reach it by whacking GOP priorities and stripping the measure of billions of dollars in pet projects for lawmakers in both parties. ...

"Short of having somebody in authority sit down and say, 'OK, we will work out a reasonable compromise,' I don't see any point in prolonging the agony," Obey said. "I don't see how we have any choice but to go to the president's numbers on appropriations to make clear that we aren't going to link the war with token funding on the domestic side."

Obey's sentiments weren't universally shared among Democrats. Senate Appropriations Chairman Byrd still hoped to work out an agreement, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., met Monday afternoon with GOP counterpart Mitch McConnell of Kentucky in hopes of putting the omnibus measure back on track. ...

Obey's comments appeared aimed in part at encouraging the sizable bloc of pragmatic Republicans supporting the split-the-differences bill to press GOP leaders to make concessions or risk losing funding for favored programs and hometown projects.

No CBS Story Tonight

I heard the phrase "ready to go" from CBS News today, but no Social Security story ran on the CBS Evening News tonight. I have also heard that CBS is still interviewing people for a Social Security piece.

Attorney Fee Irony

The "user fee" deducted from payments of fees for representing Social Security claimants has now gone up to $79. This was effective for fees authorized on or after December 1. The maximum fee that may be paid an attorney was not adjusted for inflation, however, meaning that the net fee paid to attorneys for representing Social Security claimants was decreased due to inflation.

Trying To Blunt The Attack?

From today's Washington Times:

Social Security Administration leaders are trying to implement a process that would quickly — nearly automatically — approve disability benefits for people with rare debilitating diseases that clearly meet SSA criteria.

The effort is part of the ongoing larger plan to alleviate a steep backlog that leaves many applicants waiting for years to have their cases resolved.

"We've got a backlog; we've got to make our decisions better and faster," said Michael Astrue, SSA commissioner.

New Rules On Employee Privacy

An amendment of Social Security's rules on disclosure of information from today's Federal Register:

We will not disclose information when the information sought is lists of telephone numbers and/or duty stations of one or more Federal employees if the disclosure, as determined at the discretion of the official responsible for custody of the information, would place employee(s) at risk of injury or other harm. Also, we will not disclose the requested information if the information is protected from mandatory disclosure under an exemption of the Freedom of Information Act.

Light Regulatory Agenda?

According to Social Security's semi-annual regulatory agenda published today, the only rule the agency is working on at the moment is one on representation of claimants. However, there must be some problem with this agenda, since the agency is clearly working on more items than this.

CBS Item On Backlogs Coming

I had posted earlier that I had heard that CBS News was working on a piece about Social Security's backlogs. I received a telephone message this morning from CBS News, which was the first time they had contacted me. By the time I called back, I was told that they had the story ready to go, so I think we should expect the story to run soon, probably tonight, on the evening news.

NY Times Article On Social Security Disability Backlogs

The New York Times article on Social Security disability backlogs is out. Read the whole article, but here are a few excerpts:

Steadily lengthening delays in the resolution of Social Security disability claims have left hundreds of thousands of people in a kind of purgatory, now waiting as long as three years for a decision.

Two-thirds of those who appeal an initial rejection eventually win their cases.

But in the meantime, more and more people have lost their homes, declared bankruptcy or even died while awaiting an appeals hearing, say lawyers representing claimants and officials of the Social Security Administration, which administers disability benefits for those judged unable to work or who face terminal illness. ...

Progress against the backlog, if it happens, cannot undo the three years that Belinda Virgil of Fayetteville has worried about her future since her initial application was turned down. Tethered to an oxygen tank 24 hours a day because of emphysema and life-threatening sleep apnea, Ms. Virgil lost her apartment and has alternated between a sofa in her daughter’s crowded house and a friend’s place as she waits for answer to her appeal. ...

Richard and Vicki Wild and their adult son Mark, of Hillsborough, were mystified that Mark’s case would ever require a judge.

Hospitalized with increasing frequency since his severe diabetes was discovered at age 19, when he was found unconscious in a bus station, Mark Wild was eager to work as a chef. But over the course of 15 years he tried and lost jobs as a waiter and a cook. He had to drop out of culinary school because he was hospitalized so often, his parents said. ...

On Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2006, just a few days before the hearing, Mrs. Wild woke up to find her son gone. On his desk lay his watch, his ring and a bullet.

On that Thursday, Mrs. Wild, 55, got a call at work from their lawyer. “I just wanted to give you the good news,” she said he told her. “Somehow the judge has already approved the disability, it’s a done deal, Mark’s got it.”

Two hours later, a deputy sheriff and a chaplain arrived to say that hunters had found Mark Wild’s body in the woods, dead of a self-inflicted gun wound. ...

Mr. Wild has tried to go back to work, but says he is so depressed that he cannot do his job. He is applying for disability, but knows that he cannot expect an answer anytime soon.