Dick Cheney's Influence Waning

From a March 19, 2009 Memorandum to all agency heads from Attorney General Eric Holder:

First, an agency should not withhold information [under the Freedom Of Information Act -- FOIA] simply because it may do so legally. I strongly encourage agencies to make discretionary disclosures of information. An agency should not withhold records merely because it can demonstrate, as a technical matter, that the records fall within the scope of a FOIA exemption. ...

[A]s the President stated in his memorandum, "The Government should not keep information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears." ...

[A]gencies should readily and systematically post information online in advance of any public request. Providing more information online reduces the need for individualized requests and may help reduce existing backlogs [of FOIA requests].

Social Security may finally act upon my Freedom Of Information Act request for all the recent Emergency Messages that the agency has been trying to keep secret and, better yet, stop keeping Emergency Messages secret for trivial reasons, such as embarrassment. Emergency Messages are the main way that the Social Security Administration transmits information about policy changes to its employees. Most Emergency Messages issued in recent years have been labeled "Sensitive" and withheld from the public. This is inconsistent to the policy described by the Attorney General.

Electronics Records Exchange Extends To Virginia

From an IBM press release:

IBM (NYSE: IBM), MedVirginia and the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) today announced a first-of-a-kind electronic records exchange system to help speed the process of granting disability benefits for millions of Americans. ...

The project, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) Cooperative, began just 14 months ago and represents the first health information exchange between a regional health information organization and a U.S. federal agency.

Refighting The New Deal

From a press release issued by Representative John Linder (R-GA), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee:

There is no question that this backlog is one we must work to fix. That said, in the long run, the more important concern, and what this hearing is really about, is the plummeting credibility of those who think that the Federal government can solve the problems of ordinary Americans. Too many of my Democrat colleagues think that anything that is wrong can be fixed by big government programs like SSDI and SSI. We are here today talking about why they are failing, but instead of learning a lesson about the failure of government-run welfare, the Majority party on this Committee will continue to push for big government programs; and they will fail.

You underfund an agency until it breaks down and is unable to adequately fulfill its mission. Then you use the agency's breakdown as justification for eliminating the agency. Makes sense if you really, really hate Social Security.

Representative Kevin Brady (R-TX), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, has also issued a press release that talks about his participation in yesterday's hearing. The press release talks solely about fraud in the Social Security disability programs. He expresses no concern about poor service and huge backlogs at Social Security.

Congress Frustrated

From The Oregonian:

Despite an infusion of $148 million and attention at the highest levels, the Social Security Administration has made little progress reducing an enormous backlog of disability claims for the nation's sickest and most vulnerable people, a House subcommittee heard Tuesday. ...

The backlog has been reduced in some areas but has increased in others. ...

None of this sat well with lawmakers.

"Time after time we learn of severely ill individuals who face dire, even tragic circumstances while they endure lengthy waits, often extending three years or more, to receive desperately needed benefits," said Rep. John Tanner, D-Tenn., the subcommittee chairman. ...

Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., a senior member of the Ways and Means Committee, said Congress is unhappy.

"The frustration is, we give them the money, why can't they fix it?"

Walkaways At Field Offices

From the statement of Rick Warsinskey, District Office Manager, Cleveland, Ohio; and Immediate Past President, National Council of Social Security Management Associations, Inc. to the House Ways and Means Committee:

SSA Field Offices are also seeing a significant increase in the number of people who leave without receiving service. In fact, this calendar year to date we are averaging nearly 80,000 people a week, or 8.4%, that leave our offices without receiving service. Many Field Offices have a much higher percentage. Examples of these Field Offices are:

• Memphis South, TN: 10.5%
• Seattle Downtown, WA: 12.8%
• Charleston, SC: 14.0%
• Mobile, AL: 14.1%
• Houston Northeast, TX: 14.8%
• Chicago East, IL: 15.2%
• Austin, Texas: 16.0%
• Norfolk, VA: 16.8%
• Oakland, CA: 19.8%
• Brooklyn Flatbush, NY: 20.1%
• Clearwater, FL: 21.7%
• Baltimore NE, MD: 27.0%
• North Las Vegas, NV: 33.7%

I have not heard anything from Commissioner Astrue that begins to respond to the problems that Social Security field offices have in handling their foot traffic -- and their problems handling telephone calls are much worse. Certainly, more than half of all telephone calls to Social Security field offices go unanswered. No one knows how much more than half. It may be 80% or more. I cannot believe that anyone familiar with Social Security field offices could think that the internet is going to solve this problem, but I do not know what other plan Commissioner Astrue has.

Furloughs And Social Security Disability

The testimony of Social Security's Inspector General to the House Ways and Means Committee includes the sobering news that five states have furloughed their employees who perform disability determination work for the Social Security Administration. Those five states comprise 15% of the national workload. Here is the list of states affected:

• California
• Connecticut
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• Oregon

This is happening even though these furloughs do nothing to help state budget shortfalls. 100% of the costs of these employees are paid by Social Security. It appears that state governments are mostly interested in the appearance of fairness to all of their employees. The furloughs actually worsen the economies of the states involved by reducing the paychecks of state employees unnecessarily and delaying payment of disability benefits.

This must be addressed by legislation. States should not be allowed to take money under ARRA and do this.

New Hearing Office Sites

Commissioner Astrue's statement to the House Ways and Means Committee includes a map showing new hearing office sites for Social Security. The map only became visible to me when I viewed it here. I tried to reproduce it here, but it doesn't scale properly. Here is a list of the locations:

• Akron, OH
• Atlanta South, GA
  
• Fayetteville, NC
  
• Livonia, MI
• Madison, WI
  
• Mt. Pleasant, MI
• St. Petersburg, FL
  
• Toledo, OH
  
• Topeka, KS
• Tallahasee, FL
  

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.