Bush Threatens New Veto

From The Hill:

President Bush suggested Monday that he may not sign the omnibus appropriations bill that is expected to be sent to his desk later this week and said lawmakers should consider passing a one-year continuing resolution.

Even though Congress has bowed to his spending wishes, Bush warned lawmakers that he will be “watching very carefully as the Congress works through how to spend your money coming down the stretch before Christmas. They can’t have any gimmicks — accounting gimmicks — in there.”

Budget: $150 Million More Than President's Recommendation

If I am reading it correctly, the omnibus appropriations bill likely to be passed by the Congress and signed by the President is $150 million over the President's recommendation for the Social Security Administration. Please study it yourself. It is a 364 page document. Page 361, however, is the key page for Social Security. I have reproduced that page above. Click on it to see it full size.

Appropriations Situation

Congressional leaders have come up with a mammoth omnibus appropriations bill, which would cover the Social Security Administration (SSA). I have not yet been able to find a good summary of the bill. Here is a little nugget from the New York Times, however, suggesting that the bill contains something for SSA beyond the President's recommended budget: "...Democrats touted, for instance, increases for Social Security administrative costs aimed at reducing backlogs for disability claims ..."

Editorial On Social Security Backlogs

From the San Antonio Express News:

The system that is supposed to help those least able to help themselves is failing them.

Appeals of Social Security disability claims are taking years to get resolved. ...

The problem appears to be a lack of sufficient judges to hear the appeals. ...

It's a shame that a system established to help is instead aggravating the problems.

Social Security Employees Drawing Social Security Benefits

The Social Security Administration's Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently did a study of Social Security employees drawing Social Security benefits. The vast majority of these folks were perfectly entitled to what they were drawing from Social Security. Remember that there is no retirement earnings test for those who have reached full retirement age and Social Security has a fair number of employees who are well into their 60s and beyond. But there were problems cases and OIG wants to prosecute. From the report:

Overall, SSA ensured that employees who are also entitled to OASDI or SSI are paid the appropriate benefits. However, we identified 8 employees (out of 194 who received benefits) who were overpaid $245,311 in OASDI benefits because of their earnings. By stopping these benefits, the Agency will save $124,176 over the next 12 months.

We referred these eight employees to our Office of Investigations (OI) for criminal investigation. As of November 2007, three of these eight cases were with the United States (U.S.) Attorney's Office or the District Attorney's Office for prosecution due to possible fraud. For another three cases, the U.S. Attorney's Office declined to prosecute the cases and they were being handled by SSA administratively. Also, in the remaining two cases, SSA was taking administrative action.

Fraud In Montana

From KPAX in Missoula, Montana:

A Montana State Prison inmate, who illegally received about $14,000 in Social Security benefits, has been sentenced to 16 months in federal prison.

James Hendershot was also ordered to pay restitution of $16,000.

The federal term will be consecutive to his state sentence of five years on a 2004 conviction for aggravated assault and assault with a weapon.

It is unlawful to collect Social Security while in prison.

Continued Workforce Reduction -- Correction

Yesterday, I had posted the numbers on the number of employees at Social Security, reporting that there had been a 3% decline in the past year. Actually, the decline was 1.9%. I had mistakenly posted the numbers for Social Security employment in the United States, instead of the gross Social Security employment as I had done previously. Social Security has some employees in territories such as Puerto Rico and Guam and one lone employee on truly foreign territory. (I believe that one person is employed at the U.S. consulate in Frankfurt, Germany and is completely overwhelmed. I have helped some people who have filed claims for U.S. Social Security benefits while living in other countries and the problems are almost literally insurmountable. Did you know that there is an international DDS that handles claims for U.S. Social Security disability benefits filed from overseas and that its backlogs make any other backlogs at Social Security look trivial?) Below are the corrected numbers from the Office of Personnel Management.

Social Security can take little comfort in having a 1.9% decline in employment in the past year instead of a 3% decline. The agency's workforce may decline at an even greater rate in the next year.

In the face of rapidly increasing workloads and a significant workforce reduction, how can Social Security work its way out of its backlogs? The answer is simple. It cannot. Expect backlogs to get worse.

• September 2007 62,407
• June 2007 62,530
• March 2007 61,867
• December 2006 63,410
• September 2006 63,647
• September 2005 66,147
• September 2004 65,258
• September 2003 64,903
• September 2002 64,648
• September 2001 65,377
• September 2000 64,521
• September 1999 63,957
• September 1998 65,629

Arkansas TV Station On Backlogs

From KFSM in Arkansas:

People trying to tap into social security funds may have a hard time getting help, according to a recent national study.

Attorneys that 5News spoke with say there are not enough people to handle the sheer volume of disability claims coming through the pipes. They say most of the appeals are valid, but the process takes so long, it can leave those needing help without funds for two to three years. ...

Attorneys 5News talked to say many times, the health of those waiting declines dramatically, because they don't quite qualify for Medicaid. Attorneys also say if applicant's utilities are cut off, or if they're being evicted, they can request an expedited hearing, but say even those are not much faster.