Benefit Offset Demonstration To End

The Social Security Administration published a notice in the Federal Register today that the Benefit Offset Pilot Demonstration will end.

Here is a description of the pilot:

On August 1, 2005, we began a pilot demonstration testing the effects of applying a benefit offset as an alternative to the current rules for treating the work activity of a title II disability beneficiary who has completed a 9-month trial work period. Under the benefit offset in this demonstration project, we reduce disability benefits $1 for every $2 a beneficiary earns above the SGA threshold amount instead of stopping benefit payments.

The pilot program is ending because "the process we developed for administering the benefit offset under the BOPD [Benefit Offset Demonstration Pilot] proved to be inefficient and administratively burdensome," but Social Security says that " ... we are developing a system to provide an efficient method for administering a benefit offset provision under the national demonstration project."

A lot of people have had a lot of hope for this benefit offset demonstration. Maybe Social Security can still make it fly, but this notice cannot be a good sign. Of course, the real problem may be that the Social Security Act makes it so difficult to get on disability benefits that few disability benefits recipients have any real capacity to return to work no matter what incentives they are given.

Astrue Interview

Michael Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, gave a lengthy interview to the Business Of Government Hour, a service of the IBM Center for the Business of Government, on December 6. I assume this is a non-profit. The interview is available online.

I found the interviewers' frequent reference to the Commissioner by his first name to be surprising and inappropriate. It is not like being a high government official pays that well. At least you ought to be addressed by your title.

Here are a few highlights of what he said:

• Astrue described the Commissioner of Social Security as reporting directly to the President of the United States.
• "I'm staying" in the new Administration.
• Social Security has not had a true strategic plan in the past, but the agency now has a "terrific" strategic plan.
• "We need to make sure our employee base does not keep shrinking."
• "We give the highest priority to the oldest [disability] cases." In the past, for political reasons, it was otherwise.
• Astrue feels it is important for Social Security to encourage retirement saving.
• Some simplification of the SSI program would help Social Security in achieving accuracy in administering the program.
• Social Security now has a notice improvement office.
• Social Security is reaching out effectively to military veterans.
• He wants the National Institutes for Health to run clinical trials on biomarkers to test for disability for various impairments.
• Social Security is providing technical advice for the Department of Veterans Affairs
• Patty Duke will be an unpaid celebrity spokesperson for Social Security. She is 62. She is also a spokesperson for those suffering from bipolar disorder. [Does she know how badly Social Security treats those suffering from bipolar disorder who apply for Social Security disability benefits?]
  

Update: When I originally listened to this, there was a problem with the last segment of the interview. I e-mailed the IBM Center and they e-mailed me the last segment. I thought they must have corrected it on the website, but I should have checked. They have not yet done so. E-mail them and I am sure they will send you a copy.

No One Asked To Resign At Social Security

A December 1 memorandum from the Chief of Staff to President Bush to all cabinet and executive agency heads:

To provide the President-elect maximum flexibility in assembling his Administration, and consistent with past practice, President Bush is requesting letters of resignation from all non-career appointees except Inspectors General and those individuals who hold termed positions.

Please transmit the attached "Memorandum for Non-Termed Presidential Appointees" to each non-termed Presidential Appointee in your organization.

Please also collect letters of resignation from non-career SES and Schedule C appointees. These letters should be addressed to you and should indicate an anticipated departure date of no later than noon, January 20, 2009. A sample letter is attached.

Non-career SES and Schedule C appointees at independent and regulatory agencies headed by termed appointees are not being asked to submit letters of resignation at this time.

Once he becomes President, Barack Obama can fire Social Security's Inspector, General Patrick P. O'Carroll, Jr. As a general matter, I would expect a new President to replace the Inspector Generals at all agencies.

Obama will also be able to fill the vacant positions of Deputy Commissioner of Social Security and Chair of the Social Security Advisory Board.

I am unclear on whether the new President will have the ability to fire Senior Executive Service (SES) and Schedule C personnel at Social Security. Even if he does have the ability, I have to guess that he would not exercise the authority as long as Commissioner Astrue cooperates with the Obama White House as well as he has cooperated with the Bush White House.

Saving Millions, Wasting Billions

The Oregonian, which ran an article over the weekend on Social Security's inability to do continuing disability reviews because of lack of operating funds, has an editorial today titled "Saving Millions, Wasting Billions." The editorial is a bit overblown, but the basic premise of the editorial is accurate. The Social Security Administration is unable to conduct an adequate stewardship program because it lacks adequate operating funds. The agency is also unable to give the public even adequate service, which undermines the very concept upon which the agency was founded. Social Security is the proudest accomplishment of the Democratic Party. Restoring public confidence in Social Security should be a priority for the Obama Administration.

Proposed Regs on SSI Income And Resources

Social Security has published a Notice of Proposed Rule-Making (NPRM) in the Federal Register on Supplemental Security Income (SSI) income and resources. Here is Social Security's summary:

We propose to amend our Supplemental Security Income (SSI) regulations by making technical revisions to our rules on income and resources. Many of these revisions reflect legislative changes found in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2001, the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA), an amendment to the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968, the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000, and the Social Security Protection Act of 2004 (SSPA). We further propose to amend the SSI home exclusion rules to extend the home exclusion to individuals who, because of domestic abuse, leave a home that would otherwise be an excludable resource. Finally, we propose to update our "conditional- payment'' rule to eliminate the liquid resource requirement as a prerequisite to receiving conditional payments.

There was an unusual delay after this proposal was approved by President Bush's Office of Management and Budget (OMB). It is unclear whether Commissioner Astrue also ran this by the Obama transition. It is not controversial.

Forty Organizations Lobby On Social Security Budget

The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which represents 900 Social Security employees at Social Security's Office of Disability Adjudication and Review, issued a press release Monday on Social Security's budget situation. Here are some excerpts:

The nation’s largest independent union of federal employees has joined with a group of 40 organizations in urging key members of the House and Senate to support additional funding to allow the Social Security Administration (SSA) to make significant inroads in the growing and highly damaging backlog of disability appeals hearings ...

The message from NTEU and other groups comes on the heels of a similar request from House and Ways Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) and the heads of two Ways and Means subcommittees to Rep. David Obey (D-Wis.), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. ...

The organizations seek final administrative funding for SSA in fiscal 2009 of no less than the House-recommended level of $10.427 billion—which is $100 million above the president’s budget request. The administration’s budget proposal did recommend an increase in SSA administrative funds, but the groups say that proposal is insufficient. “We strongly believe” funding of less than $10.427 billion “would exacerbate the massive backlog” of disability appeals hearings, they wrote.

It is unfortunate that these groups feel that they must still fight for an appropriation for Social Security for the current fiscal year that is only $100 million above President Bush's inadequate budget recommendation. The contrast with the bailouts is obvious. We must hope for much better for the next fiscal year which will begin on October 1, 2009.

I have reproduced on the separate Social Security Perspectives blog the letter that this forty organization coalition sent to the relevant Congressional committees.

Transition Meeting On Social Security Coming Up

From the December 8 Capitol Insider put out by the Disability Policy Collaboration (DPC):

DPC staff will meet this week with members of the Obama Transition teams to discuss high priority disability agenda issues and the Social Security Administration. The purpose of these meetings is to educate and inform the transition team about major disability policy issues. In addition, some meetings are targeted to specific federal agencies as the transition team conducts its reviews.

New Federal Judges

"What I do want is a judge who is sympathetic enough to those who are on the outside, those who are vulnerable, those who are powerless, those who can't have access to political power and as a consequence can't protect themselves from being . . . dealt with sometimes unfairly"

-- Barack Obama in May 2008.

The federal courts have had relatively little impact on Social Security in recent years. This may change as the composition of the courts changes over the next four or eight years as a result of Barack Obama's appointments. A Washington Post article reports that 56% of the judges on the Courts of Appeals are now Republicans. Congress seems likely to approve a bill to add 14 judges to the Courts of Appeals and 52 District Court judges.

The most dramatic change will occur at the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. Republicans have a 6-5 majority on the court, but there are four vacancies on the Court.

My advice in recent years on appealing to the 4th Circuit has been to not appeal, no matter how strong the case or how egregious the mistakes below may have been. It has literally been impossible to win at a Court this has become astonishingly right wing. The impression given was that the judges of the 4th Circuit did not bother to read the briefs before entering two paragraph per curiam opinions.

There will also be a change in control of the 2d and 3d Circuits as well.