CCD Recommendations For Transition

Here is an excerpt from Disability Policy Recommendations for Presidential Transition and 111th Congress, a lengthy document produced by the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD), the major umbrella organization lobbying on behalf of the disabled in the United States:

The Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities urges the Administration and Congress to consider the following priorities:

• Ensure that SSA is given sufficient funding to make disability decisions in a timely manner and to carry out other critical workloads. SSA must be provided with adequate funds for its administrative expenses to make significant strides in reducing the disability claims backlog, improve other services to the public, and conduct its program integrity activities. Congress also should consider separation of SSA’s administrative budget authority from the Section 302(a) and (b) allocations for discretionary spending in other important programs. The budget would still be subject to the annual appropriations process and Congressional oversight.
• Develop proposals to promote employment among beneficiaries and potential beneficiaries and improve work incentives. However, any proposals should not make changes that would damage the existing Social Security and SSI disability programs. CCD has developed a set of principles to guide the development of proposals. The principles include: no changes to the Social Security definition of disability; no work requirements or time limits in the Social Security and SSI disability programs; and no cutbacks to eligibility criteria for these programs. The Statement also includes a comprehensive discussion of improvements to the disability programs and work incentives that CCD has supported over the years.
• Ensure that proposed changes to the disability claims process protect the rights and interests of people with disabilities and do not elevate speed of adjudication above accuracy of decisionmaking. This is problematic and not appropriate for a non-adversarial process. CCD has numerous suggestions for improving the disability claims process for people with disabilities and many have already been initiated by SSA. We believe that these recommendations and agency initiatives, which overall are not controversial and which we support, can go a long way towards reducing and eventually eliminating the disability claims backlog. The CCD recommendations, which include improved development of evidence at the beginning of the process and technological improvements, are summarized in testimony presented before the House Ways and Means Committee on April 23, 2008.
• Guarantee, if the debate on the solvency of the Social Security Trust Funds is revived, that the impact on people with disabilities is considered and that their interests are protected. CCD has urged that consideration of any proposal be required to include a beneficiary impact statement.
• Improve, simplify, and update the SSI program through legislative, regulatory, and operational changes.

Obama Plan For FY 2009 Appropriations

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

House and Senate leaders have charged the Appropriations Committees to complete action on the nine Fiscal Year Appropriations bills before the January 20 inauguration. President-Elect Obama wants to sign a stimulus package and the remaining FY 2009 Appropriations bills shortly after he takes office. Current appropriations are frozen at the FY 2009 levels under a continuing resolution that expires in early March.

Apfel At University of Maryland

I had earlier posted that former Social Security Commissioner Kenneth Apfel had just left the University of Texas to take a job with an insurance company. Later, I updated that to say that it appeared that the Kenneth Apfel at the insurance company is a different fellow with the same name. An article in the American Association for Retired Persons (AARP) Bulletin reports that the Apfel who used to be Commissioner is now at the University of Maryland.

8,100 Work Year Backlog And Other News

On Friday I attended a continuing legal education session put on by the North Carolina Association for Justice (formerly the NC Academy of Trial Lawyers) which included Ethel Zelenske from the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) and several speakers from the Social Security Administration. Here are some news items I picked up.

Ethel Zelenske is the Director of NOSSCR's Government Affairs Office in Washington. She reported that Social Security entered the 2009 Fiscal Year (FY) on October 1, 2008 with an 8,100 man year (or in government terms Full Time Equivalent or FTE year) backlog of work apart from the Office of Disability Adjudication and Review. Note that I did not say man hour backlog, but man year backlog. (Update: This 8,100 man year backlog figure was used earlier by Senator Baucus as the size the workload backup may grow to in FY 2009.)

Zelenske reported that Michael Astrue appears to want to stay in his position as Commissioner of Social Security.

Zelenske brought with her some statistics from Social Security on average Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) dispositions per day per hearing office and average age of pending at each hearing office. You can view these on the separate Social Security Perspectives Blog. Please note that that the average age of pending number is potentially misleading.

Zelenske mentioned that Representative John Lewis of Georgia, an important member of the House Ways and Means Committee, has promised to introduce legislation to raise the cap on fees for representing Social Security claimants and to index that cap for inflation.

Reginald Jackson, Social Security's Acting Deputy Associate Commissioner for the Office of Disability Policy, talked about various policy issues, one of which is that Social Security is updating its medical listings for disability. I inquired about the status of the mental impairment listings. Social Security had obtained approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for new mental impairment listings in July but has not published the proposal in the Federal Register. Jackson's response was essentially, "Oh, you mean the 12.05 proposal? We were told that was on hold because of the transition to the new administration." Listing 12.05 is for mental retardation. It has become the most controversial of listings. I have no doubt that Michael Astrue intended to make it dramatically more difficult for mentally retarded people to qualify for disability benefits, but realized that he would never be able to get this past OMB as a final regulation in an Obama Administration.

Susan L. Brown, Social Security's eDIB Coordinator, told the group that Social Security hopes to roll out attorney and representative access to the electronic files over the internet nationally by this time next year. Interestingly, she mentioned that attorneys and representatives would be assigned an ID code for access to electronic files. Attorneys and representatives have objected to being required to use their own Social Security numbers as a unique identifier with Social Security, as is now the case. The concern is that this gives their own staff, Social Security staff and even their clients access to this confidential information. An ID number other than a Social Security number would be welcome news for people like me. I would be willing to bet that because they have ready access to my Social Security number several Social Security employees have already looked up my earnings record. They could get fired for it, but human nature being what it is, they have probably already done it.

Dorcas Hardy Remains Active

Former Social Security Commissioner Dorcas Hardy serves on two corporate boards and is President of Hardy and Associates, although it is unclear whether this remains an active business. She served as a surrogate for Republican Presidential candidate John McCain during the recent campaign. She is a member of the Social Security Advisory Board.

New York Times Editorial Mentions Social Security Backlogs

From today's New York Times editorial page:

As the sun sets on the Bush administration, the survival rite known as burrowing is under way. Burrowing is when favored political appointees are transformed into civil servants and granted instant tenure on the federal payroll. ...

Barack Obama the candidate smartly appealed to demoralized federal workers, writing campaign letters promising to reverse many of the Bush administration’s worst practices. ...

The promises extend to such trouble spots as staff shortages that have created a shameful backlog in Social Security disability claims ...

It’s encouraging that the president-elect recognizes that to make the changes he’s promising — and deliver a government that will protect and help its citizens — he will need energized, rather than alienated, federal workers. ...

There has been no sign so far of burrowing at Social Security that I know of. I have noticed a job opening at Social Security for the Assistant Deputy Commissioner for Disability Adjudication and Review, however. It will be interesting to see who gets that job.

Fee Payments

Below is a table showing the payments of fees to attorneys and others for representing Social Security claimants this year. These statistics are a useful analogue for how quickly or slowly Social Security is paying benefits to disabled claimants after a favorable decision. Notice the unevenness in the payments.

Fee Payments
Month/Year	Volume	Amount
Jan-08	20,559	$75,368,163.45
Feb-08	26,570	$95,228,284.32
Mar-08	23,088	$83,166,027.02
Apr-08	27,296	$98,616,579.78
May-08	29,305	$104,283,373.35
June-08	25,243	$89,786,459.83
July-08	22,238	$77,346,266.77
Aug-08	33,834	$120,819,791.05
Sept-08	25,239	$89,167,725.69
Oct-08	31,296	$111,938,127.61

No Free Parking For ALJ

From the Indianapolis Star:

The meter always read "expired." But the champagne-colored Toyota sedan never seemed to get a ticket.

A placard on the dashboard said simply "federal judge official business." No name. No authorizing signature. No date. No contact information. Nothing to suggest the car's owner had special permission not to feed the meter.

No tickets were ever issued, though, because until October there were so many different parking passes in circulation Downtown that meter enforcers could not verify whether the permit was legitimate.

It wasn't.

After a bit of digging, it turns out the car belongs to administrative law judge Reinhardt F. Korte, who is one of 13 administrative law judges assigned to Indianapolis by the Social Security Administration to hear disability cases.

SSA spokeswoman Carmen Moreno said neither Korte nor any of the other dozen administrative law judges were authorized to get free parking. They also aren't authorized to use a pass.

Korte, 63, said through Indianapolis attorney John Forbes that he acquired the permit from a now-retired judge, William Vaughn, sometime around 2006 and assumed it was OK to use. After The Star's inquiry, Korte called the Office of Inspector General to inquire himself, Forbes said, and stopped using the pass.

Attempts to reach Vaughn were unsuccessful.

"We hold our employees to a high standard of conduct,'' Moreno said, "and are disappointed with the actions of this individual."

Moreno said the agency was looking into Korte's actions. She said she couldn't discuss the results of any investigation because of privacy laws.