New Chair For Senate Appropriations?

Appropriations are key for the Social Security Administration. The chairs of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees are some of the most powerful people in our nation's capitol. Here is some news from Taegan Goddard's Political Wire:

With Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) ailing, Senate Democrats are eyeing Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) "as a potential backup if Byrd is unable to serve as manager for the next war supplemental," according to CQ Politics.

The news comes as the Politico reports rumors of possible coup to displace the 90 year old chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

"New stories were floated this week of agitation in the party's ranks over whether the West Virginian would be able to manage an upcoming wartime spending bill. But when fingers pointed to Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) as two agitators in the leadership, both offices issued indignant denials."

Something Coming On Cardiovascular Listings

The White House, through the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) must approve all regulatory items appearing in the Federal Register. This item just appeared on the OMB website, indicating that OMB has completed its review:

Social Security Administration

AGENCY: SSA	RIN: 0960-AG74
TITLE: Revised Medical Criteria for Evaluating Cardiovascular Disorders (3477A)
STAGE: Prerule	ECONOMICALLY SIGNIFICANT: No
RECEIVED DATE: 03/27/2008	LEGAL DEADLINE: None
** COMPLETED: 04/09/2008	COMPLETED ACTION: Consistent without Change

TV Story On Social Security Backlogs In San Diego

Television station "Fox6" (I could not even find the station's official call letters on its website) in San Diego is running a lengthy piece on hearing backlogs. The backlogs in San Diego are getting longer since the local hearing office has been sent 3,100 out of state cases to hear. You can watch the piece, but the station almost hides the video link. It is on the right side of the page, just under the list of most popular stories.

Benefit Eligibility Screening Tool

From a press release put out by the Department of Labor:

A newly designed version of the U.S. Social Security Administration's (SSA) online Benefit Eligibility Screening Tool (BEST) application, powered by the U.S. Department of Labor-managed GovBenefits.gov, has been launched to make it easier for individuals to determine their eligibility for 17 different Social Security programs.

GovBenefits.gov is the federal government's official source for information about more than 1,000 benefit programs available through 16 agencies. BEST is SSA's Web-based tool for information about benefits administered by that agency. Previously, the two applications represented separate screening tools that citizens could access to learn about programs in which they might participate. A new customized connection links the content of these sites and eliminates the redundancy of having two distinct portals.

OIG And AALJ

Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) has done an audit of Social Security's expenditures for training conferences run by the Association of Administrative Law Judges (AALJ), an employee union that represents many, but far from all, Administrative Law Judges (ALJs).

I would say that it looks as if OIG was looking for reasons why the agency should discontinue its expenditures for these training conferences. The OIG found what it regarded as adequate reason to recommend this. The bottom line is that Social Security intends to do this training in house.

Commissioner Astrue has bitterly attacked ALJs and the AALJ. This outcome cannot be a surprise to anyone who has followed the state of labor relations at Social Security under Michael Astrue.

I expect that the AALJ will press to undo this decision if the next President is a Democrat and Michael Astrue decides not to try to hang on as Commissioner under a Democratic President.

Union Pickets Outside Social Security Building

From the Birmingham [Alabama] News:

Government employee union members stood with picket signs outside the new $150 million Social Security Administration building Tuesday to protest what they described as unfair working conditions.

About 30 members were across the street of the campus-style center at Eighth Avenue North and 12th Street.

"It's a beautiful building, but it's not employee friendly," said Celestine Hood, executive vice president of American Federation of Government Employees, Local 2206.

Patti Patterson, a spokesperson for Social Security's Atlanta region, said the agency has reached out to to the union to discuss the concerns, adding that the agency's goal is to have a safe and equally accessible workplace for all employees.

Hood and Anthony Young, president of AFGE Local 2206, said a main concern is that the building is not accessible for people using manual wheelchairs. They also said there have been no fire or tornado evacuation plans given to employees since employees began moving into the building in February.

The two said building management has a list of rules that forbids practices allowed in the old building, such as having personal fans. The new facility replaced the building at 2001 12th Ave. North.

"Things we were doing for 34 years didn't come over here with us," Young said.

Hood and Young said they have been in negotiations with Social Security officials. They said they plan to picket until conditions are better for employees.

"We want the employees to be happy and right now they're not," Young said.

Trouble In Paradise

From the Honolulu Star Bulletin, written by Frank Ury:

As a lawyer representing disabled people who have been denied Social Security disability benefits, I am deeply concerned about the current situation in our Honolulu Social Security hearing office.

Most of these hearings are litigated before an administrative law judge. The judge who has capably handled claims for Hawaii for many years has recently had some health problems, and has been off on sick leave since about November.

There have been many stories from the mainland about delays in hearing offices around the country, but until recently Hawaii ranked ninth in the nation for speed of processing -- although that still meant people here waited a year for a hearing. Now the wait is indeterminable because no cases are being scheduled at all.

What should happen in a situation like this is that the Social Security Administration's regional office in San Francisco would make an arrangement to have the hearing docket handled by a visiting judge. For some reason this has not happened, and there have been no Social Security hearings in the state of Hawaii since November.

There has been no response to inquiries to the regional office.

I represent a fraction of the people who are waiting for hearings. A hearing request is filed after two initial denials that have been appealed. That process can take six to 12 months before the request for hearing is made.

The wait for a hearing in Hawaii before the judge went on sick leave was 332 days. I personally have about 50 clients waiting for their cases to be scheduled. These are individuals with severe illnesses that prevent them from working, and they have no income while they await a decision.

The disabled citizens of our state deserve better.

Frank Ury practices law in Honolulu.

Hearing Backlog Report

Above is the most recent national Hearing Office Backlog report, ranking Social Security's Hearing Offices by the length of time they are taking to afford claimants hearings. This report had been obtained by the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) and published in NOSSCR's newsletter. Click on each thumbnail to see it full size.