Federal Times On Senate Finance Hearing

Some excerpts from an article in the Federal Times:

... [E]xperts warned that unless Congress appropriates more funds to increase field office staff, dire consequences would follow. “We could be going down a cliff if things continue,” [Richard] Warsinskey [of the National Council of Social Security Management Associations] said in an interview after the hearing. “It’s been a steady slide downward. We’re entering a fragile period.”

Added GAO’s [Government Accountability Office's Barbara] Bovbjerg: “Hope for the future is running out.” ...

Pressed by Baucus, McMahon promised to finalize the agency’s annual strategic plan to Congress by July 4.

A goal of the plan is to reduce wait times for visitors to field offices by five minutes to 10 minutes for those with appointments and 10 minutes to 15 minutes for those without them.

Waiting In Rochester

A brief excerpt from an article in the Daily Record of Rochester, NY:

Smith ultimately waited for three years before his appeal was heard by an administrative law judge in Rochester.

The hearing on March 6 lasted about 10 minutes. The judge asked Smith a few questions about his surgery and medical problems, and said that he had already reviewed the materials. Most claimants have to wait 30 to 45 days for a written decision; but this time, Smith was lucky. The judge granted his appeal on the spot.

A Ray Of Light For Galveston

Local efforts to prevent the Social Security Administration from closing its Galveston field office may be starting to get somewhere. The Daily News of Galveston County is reporting that while the office may close, a satellite office may open there in its place. Local Congressman Ron Paul, who is still running for President, is refusing to get involved, however.

Most Popular Baby Names: A Social Security Press Release Worth Reading

The Social Security Administration has released its list of most popular baby names for 2007. This is always a fascinating item, but I have to commend whoever wrote this press release. Included are discussions of the effects on baby naming of popular figures such as Danica Patrick, JaMarcus Russell, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Elvis, the popularity of names rhyming with the word "maiden" and names for girls that reflect spiritual concepts, such as the name "Neveah." You're familiar with the spiritual meaning of the name "Neveah", aren't you? Anyway, here is the top ten list:

Boys:	Girls:
1) Jacob 2) Michael 3) Ethan 4) Joshua 5) Daniel 6) Christopher 7) Anthony 8) William 9) Matthew 10) Andrew	1) Emily 2) Isabella 3) Emma 4) Ava 5) Madison 6) Sophia 7) Olivia 8) Abigail 9) Hannah 10) Elizabeth

ALJ School

An anonymous poster on the ALJ Discussion Forum gives an interesting description of the training that the Social Security Administration gives to newly hired Administrative Law Judges (ALJs). It is worth a read. The Commissioner spoke to the group.

New ALJ Promised For Rochester

From the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle:

A Social Security Administration official has promised to place a new judge in its Rochester satellite office to help ease the backlog of pending disability cases in the area, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer said this week.

Legislators and advocates raised concerns last month after Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue announced 10 new administrative law judges throughout New York to help take on the mounting requests for appeals hearings but assigned none to Buffalo. The Buffalo office, which handles most local cases, traditionally had one of the country's longest processing times.

Message To The Troops

This e-mail message went out to many Socal Security personnel on Friday:

This is a message from Linda McMahon, the Deputy Commissioner for Operations, to all Operations employees. You receive these messages from time to time because the DCO wants to communicate her views to you personally.

I waited until now to send this note so I can be the last person to acknowledge you during Public Service Recognition Week. However, I have been thinking about you and the great job you do all week -- and every day before this week as well!

I testified before the Senate Finance Committee yesterday on the challenges we are experiencing in our field offices, and I know those challenges are duplicated throughout Operations. I was proud to talk about your dedication, service commitment and hard work, and I was most gratified when Senator Baucus, Chairman of the Finance Committee, closed the hearing by acknowledging the terrific job all of you do under extremely difficult circumstances.

Despite the shortage of resources, the myriad policy changes, and the ever-increasing number of people coming to us for help, you have better than held your own. You have demonstrated through your actions that service is much more than the work one person does for another. It is, in fact, the relationship that you have with the public and with each other. It's obvious to me that you take those relationships seriously, and that is the key ingredient to our success.

I hope you took time this week to appreciate each other and celebrate your contributions. As always, thanks for what you accomplish every day. Happy Public Service Recognition Week!

Linda

ALJ Association Rebuttal

From a statement filed with the House Social Security Subcommittee by the Association of Administrative Law Judges (AALJ), a union which represents many Social Security ALJs (emphasis in original):

For the April 23 2008 hearing before the House Ways and Means Committee on Clearing the Disability Backlog, Commissioner of Social Security Michael J. Astrue submitted a written statement and testified. The Association of Administrative Law Judges (AALJ) believes significant portions of the Commissioner’s statements were incorrect, misleading or irrelevant to the backlog issue. This statement is submitted in rebuttal. ...

It is critical to understand that currently, of the 758,000 total pending cases, 446,000 of them, 59% of the total backlog, are waiting in the hearing offices to be worked up for a judge to review. This is the precise location of the blockage causing the backlog. ...

The Commissioner’s statement that since he took office in early 2007 he has increased the number of support staff from 4.1 to 4.4 is a surprising statement. Of course any attrition in the number of judges would increase the ratio of staff to judge. To increase the ratio to 4.4 would require a net addition of about 300 staff, or approximately 2 per hearing office. It is quite possible that staff personnel have been added in administrative offices, not working on programs, but such personnel cannot legitimately be considered to be staff supporting the work of the judges. This statement needs clarification and supporting data. ...

Smoke and Mirrors
Many of SSA’s highly publicized “Initiatives to Reduce the Backlog” in fact can have little if any effect on actually reducing the backlog. A few examples:

• The National Hearing Center took five judges from several offices and put them together in a new office in Falls Church. Moving five judges does nothing to reduce the backlog.
• As explained above, hiring 175 new judges without adding adequate staff is a hollow gesture. It is equivalent to purchasing 175 new trucks and fuel for 20.
• SSA has expended approximately 50,000 hours of overtime to aid ODAR in getting its work done. The faults are that the money was spent on non-ODAR personnel who do not know the ODAR work and the overtime was viewed as a benefit and thus rotated among field office personnel. The personnel who learned the job this week were replaced the following week by new personnel who did not know the job. With time lost for on-the-job training plus overtime premium, the cost to SSA has been excessive and the production sub-standard.
• Even the initiative to clear out all cases more than 1,000 days old, while commendable, did not reduce the backlog. Dozens of pages in releases and reports have been devoted to hailing this as reducing the backlog when in fact it merely shifted the production effort from one group of claims to another.

SSA’s Public Relations machine is endeavoring to convince Congress and the public that it is reducing the backlog but a review of the initiatives discloses that, while they may give the appearance of reducing the backlog, in fact they do not. ...

(This is not available elsewhere online at this point to the best of my knowledge)