What Are Michael Astrue's Priorities?

I did not have a chance to watch the Social Security Subcommittee hearing today. I have started reading the prepared statements.

Commissioner Astrue's statement surprises me.

There is widespread agreement that the Social Security Administration is not going to improve upon the dismal service it is giving the public without increasing its workforce significantly. Social Security has been given far greater appropriations for the current fiscal year than in the prior years. Large appropriations are also likely for the foreseeable future. Congress expects better service and soon. Questions have been raised about how much hiring Social Security will do. In reviewing Commissioner Astrue's lengthy written statement to the Committee, I looked hard for all the references to hiring plans. Here they are (emphasis in original):

We have already hired 140 new support staff in our hearing offices so far this year, and expect to hire over 700 additional support staff. ...

Our current estimate is that we will need 1,400 to 1,450 ALJs to achieve our goals, and we are expanding our physical infrastructure, to the extent we can, so that we can reach that level. ...

In FY 2009, we expect to add a total of 135 new staff at the Appeals Council, while replacing losses due to attrition. ...

Our full year appropriation, which supplies $126.5 million more than was included in President’s FY 2009 budget, as well as the additional funding in the ARRA, will allow us to invest in information technology, to hire 5,000 to 6,000 new employees before the end of the year, and to allot additional overtime to process critical workloads. In addition to replacing all of our losses in FY 2009, we will assign new employees to our front-line operations where they will have the greatest impact – approximately 1,200 employees to our field offices, 900 employees to our hearings offices, and 600 employees to State DDSs.

I am struck by how little of Astrue's statement dealt with hiring. I get the impression that hiring is not all that important to Michael Astrue. Management plans seem a lot more important to him. I also get the impression that when Commissioner Astrue talks of hiring 5,000 to 6,000 new employees he is talking about hires to replace employees who are leaving as well as hires to add to Social Security's workforce and that he is talking about state Disability Determination Services as well as the Social Security Administration itself. Social Security needs to hire several thousand people each year just to replace employees who are departing. I think it would be best that Commissioner Astrue not use that figure of 5,000 to 6,000 new employees again without making it clear what he means. As a Republican holdover in a Democratic Administration he needs to be careful not to say anything that could be interpreted as misleading.

Astrue's hiring plans seem puny to me. I have to wonder where all the additional money is going if Social Security will not be adding that many new employees. I also wonder what kind of appropriations it would take to induce Social Security to go on a real hiring binge, which is what I think is clearly indicated.

Occupational Information Development Advisory Committee Members Names Revealed

The Social Security Administration has finally revealed the names of the member of its Occupational Information Development Advisory Committee:

• Gunnar B. J. Andersson, M.D., Ph.D.
• Mary Barros-Bailey, Ph.D.
• Robert T. Fraser, Ph.D.
• Shanan Gwaltney Gibson, Ph.D.
• Thomas A. Hardy, J.D.
• Sylvia E. Karman
• Deborah E. Lechner
• Lynnae M. Ruttledge
• David J. Schretlen, Ph.D.
• Nancy G. Shor
• Mark A. Wilson, Ph.D.
• James F. Woods

This Committee is tasked with coming up with an alternative to the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT). Sound really boring? Hundreds of thousands of Social Security disability claimants are now being approved or denied based upon the DOT, even though everyone realizes that the DOT is preposterously out of date. Many of those decisions could go in a different direction depending upon what Social Security does about the DOT.

Judging by the biographical statements of the Committee members, consensus may be hard to come by for this Committee. I do not understand why some of these people are on this Committee. A person who makes her career in developing and marketing Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE) instruments? A person who tries to measure the disability caused by mental illness? Sounds like people who could easily sidetrack the Committee. I wish that the vast majority of these folks had some background in work evaluation and Social Security disability. My guess is that some of the Committee members are going to find their service to be extremely boring and may never understand the agendas that some others bring to this Committee.

Watch House Ways And Means Committee Hearing

Today's House Ways and Means Committee hearing on Social Security is scheduled to start at 10:30 and should be available in streaming video.

Disability Waiting Period Draws Attention

From 10News.com in San Diego:

Several weeks ago, Scripps Ranch resident Phoebe Carroll lost her husband of 25 years to esophageal cancer.Although it is the law and a rule, Carroll said it made no sense that her husband could not get money he was owed from Social Security when it was needed the most. ...

When doctors told Lane Carroll there wasn't any hope, he applied to Social Security for a Compassionate Allowance Disability benefit and was approved.

"After you're approved, you're not really approved; you have to see if you can live long enough to collect it," said Phoebe Carroll.

Under the law, benefits cannot be paid until you've been disabled for five consecutive months.Lane Carroll's disease was much faster, and the Carrolls did not receive a dime at a time when Phoebe was off work so she could care for her husband. ...

To honor his memory, Phoebe wants the law changed or at least the ability for an appeal so others won't find themselves in the situation she was in.

Class Action Lawsuit On Disabled Employees

A Baltimore law firm is making progress with a class action against Social Security concerning the rights of disabled Social Security employees. This is from the firm's newsletter:

More than 2,000 federal employees with targeted disabilities are part of a class action against the Social Security Administration because they were not promoted despite their status on best qualified lists.

Targeted disabilities include blindness, partial or complete paralysis, convulsive disorders, deafness, mental retardation, mental illness, and distortion of the limb or spine. EEOC AJ David Norken certified the class action last month in Jantz v. Social Security Administration, EEOC No. 531-2006-00276x (EEOC AJ 10/08/08). He considered data that indicates SSA employees with targeted disabilities are selected for promotion at a rate of 7.7 percent, while the rate for workers without targeted disabilities is 11.7 percent.

This is only one of several signs of pressure on Social Security to adopt more open hiring practices. Most of the pressure has nothing to do with alleged discrimination. It has to do with excessive secrecy. As an employer myself, I cannot comprehend why Social Security would want to keep job openings secret.

Witness List For House Ways And Means Committee Hearing

The witness list for tomorrow's House Ways and Means Committee hearing has been released:

Panel:
	The Honorable Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner, Social Security Administration
	Panel:
	The Honorable Patrick O’Carroll, Inspector General, Social Security Administration
	Dan Bertoni, Director of Disability Issues for the Education, Workforce & Income Security Team, U.S. Government Accountability Office
	Peggy Hathaway, Vice President, United Spinal Association, Silver Spring, Maryland; on behalf of Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities Social Security Task Force
	The Honorable Ron Bernoski, Administrative Law Judge, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and President, Association of Administrative Law Judges
	James Fell, Hearing Office Director, Social Security Administration Office of Disability Adjudication and Review, Cincinnati, Ohio; and Immediate Past President of the Federal Managers Association Chapter 275
	Rick Warsinskey, District Office Manager, Cleveland, Ohio; and Immediate Past President, National Council of Social Security Management Associations, Inc.

How Many Employees Will Social Security Hire And How Will They Be Hired?

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) has fired another shot in its ongoing battle with Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue. Here are a few excerpts from a letter sent by Witold Skwierczynski, the head of the AFGE for Social Security, to Commissioner Astrue, sent just in time for tomorrow's House Ways and Means Committee hearing:

... [T]he Union has learned that you intend to fill the following vacancies:

• 157 ALJs

• 600-700 ODAR

• 175 PSC

• 125 TSC

• 1450 Field – DCO

• 1000 DDS

If these figures are accurate, rather than hiring 5000-6000 employees in SSA as you stated in your 2/17/09 Commissioner broadcast, the Agency is only hiring about 2600 SSA workers and 1000 DDS workers. The field which is about 58% of the SSA workforce will only receive about 25% of the new employees that you stated in your 2/17/09 broadcast that SSA would hire in 2009. ...

It is also evident that managers in the field have been instructed to use discredited non competitive hiring authorities such as the Federal Career Intern Program (FCIP) to fill SSA vacancies. Managers are informing employees that they are seeking new hires at colleges and using other non-competitive sources. Jobs are not being posted on the USA jobs network for competitive hires. ...

SSA’s own statistics indicate that in FY 08 62% of hires in SSA were done under FCIP. Only 4.68% of these hires were veterans. Only 26% of hires in SSA in FY 08 were done under competitive procedures. ...

AFGE has also received a number of reports from employees complaining that managers have used FCIP to hire their relatives, friends, neighbors, fellow church members, etc. Examples are the FCIP hire of Ryan Kulinski, son of Milwaukee DT District Manager Mark Kulinski or the FCIP hiring of Mark Fansler, nephew of Seattle Area Director Steve Dymale. Both Kulinski and Fansler were not only FCIP hires but they were quickly selected at the first opportunity to higher graded positions instead of highly qualified veteran employees who were not related to management. ... If the Agency persists in using FCIP as a hiring mechanism AFGE will seriously consider filing a law suit to force the Agency to terminate this hiring mechanism which was not ever designed for the routine hiring that SSA is using with stimulus revenue.

Contractors Under Scrutiny

FedBlog is reporting that there are signs that federal contracting will come under increased scrutiny. At least at the Pentagon, using contractors instead of employees has increased costs dramatically.

I imagine that the major private sector contractor that might come under review at Social Security is Lockheed Martin which has a huge contract to do document scanning. I have no idea how the amounts paid Lockheed Martin compare to what it would cost to do the same job with federal employees. The problem is that Social Security management probably does not know either. The contract was almost certainly granted without ever considering federal employees as an alternative. That was out of the question in the Bush Administration.