The contract between Social Security and the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), a labor union that represents most Social Security employees, expires in August 2009. Apparently, contract negotiations are to resume shortly. Given the ill will that exists between the union and Social Security management, these negotiations may be rocky.
May 6, 2009
Yeah, Right Department
From the Washington Post:
Key lawmakers from both parties have held tentative talks about overhauling the Social Security system, and Congress could turn its attention to the federal retirement program as soon as this fall if a bipartisan consensus emerges, House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer said yesterday. ...
According to an advance copy of the speech [that Hoyer will deliver today], Hoyer will suggest that Congress could approve "more revenues," "restrain the growth of benefits, particularly for higher-income workers," "and/or we can raise the retirement age, recognizing that our life expectancy is higher today."
Update: Here is a link to Hoyer's speech. Hoyer not only conflates Social Security with Medicare and Medicaid, but also with health care generally. I think that the only way to resolve whatever issues there may be with any of these is to make sure to completely delink them. Social Security, especially, should be delinked since its funding problems are trivial when compared to Medicare, Medicaid or health care. I get the strong impression that Hoyer has little idea what he is talking about. How did he become the House Majority Leader?
May 5, 2009
Details Emerge On Budget Plan
From today's Wall Street Journal:
The [Obama] budget [for Fiscal Year 2010], scheduled for release Thursday, will include funds for what the White House is calling a "program integrity" initiative, enough to fund 1,100 field officers in the Social Security Administration ...Budget office officials say every dollar spent by the Social Security Administration to review disability claims will save $11 in erroneous payments. The administration hopes to secure $485 million more in the fiscal year that begins in October -- $4.3 billion over five years -- to plow through the backlog of disability reviews, which determine continued payments for disability insurance and supplemental security income, programs for the poorest of the poor. Recipients continue to receive payments while their eligibility is under review.
We will have to see the details, but only 1,100 additional employees? That is not even enough for a credible program integrity initiative.
Budget Changes Proposal In Works
From a report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) (emphasis added):
The objective of our review was to address the requests of Congressmen John S. Tanner and John Lewis that we provide the Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives (Committee), with recommended management reforms for Social Security Administration (SSA) operations. ...The big story here is that Social Security is working on a proposal to partially exempt the agency from the budget process. That would be important. However, I cannot get over OIG admitting that it has failed to conduct any audit work to confirm whether Social Security's ability to get its work done has been affected by funding shortfalls and diminished staffing levels. I cannot imagine a non-political reason for turning a blind eye to what has long been a major issue.
When examining SSA programs with significant improper payments or insufficient debt collection practices, we noted several overarching themes-or "causes"-for the vulnerabilities identified. ...
SSA reports that it has been significantly under-funded for a number of years. At the same time, its workloads have increased-through additional retirement and disability applications, as well as new congressional mandates (for example, processing millions of Medicare Part D subsidy applications and expanded participation in employee eligibility verification programs). Given the Agency's resource limitations, it made tough decisions in prioritizing its workload. However, in our opinion, such decisions have sacrificed stewardship activities and increased improper payments. ...To help ensure SSA has the resources to perform this critical work, we support a legislative proposal to create a self-funding program integrity fund. This proposal was drafted by SSA and, as of June 2008, contained the following two elements.
Provide authority for SSA to expend a portion of actual collections of erroneous payments on activities to prevent, detect, and collect erroneous payments. Specifically, the proposal would establish permanent indefinite appropriations, subject to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) apportionment, to make available to SSA up to 25 percent of the actual overpayments collected during the base FY and make available to OIG up to 2.5 percent of the same collected overpayments.
Establish a revolving fund that would be financed from SSA's stewardship/program integrity activities' projected lifetime savings. That is, SSA would be permitted to deposit up to 50 percent of the estimated future lifetime program savings from processing program integrity activities such as (but not limited to) CDRs, SSI redeterminations, Cooperative Disability Investigation Units, and Special Office of the General Counsel prosecutions. The Commissioner would be authorized to fund initiatives that would yield at least a 150 percent return on investment within a 10-year time period. This proposal would link budgeting for cost-effective program integrity activities with their results. ...
The OIG has not performed any audit work to confirm whether funding shortfalls and diminished staffing levels have impacted SSA's ability to operate effectively.
May 3, 2009
Government Projects No Social Security COLA In 2009
The Congressional Budget Office and the Obama Administration are projecting that there will be no Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) in Social Security benefits this year, because the cost of living has not and is not going up, according to a Robert Pear article in the New York Times. In fact, the head of the Congressional Budget Office says there may be no COLA until 2013.
May 2, 2009
False Alarm In California
From NBC San Diego:
Hazardous-materials crews scrambled to the Social Security administration building in Kearny Mesa Thursday to investigate reports of some type of white powder in an envelope opened by an employee.
The suspicious powder turned out to be powder used by the Social Security office on mass mailings and was not found on incoming mail.
Update: Some commenters thought it was mysterious that harmless white powder might be found in a batch of printed material. Not me. Job one for an attorney who represents Social Security claimants is to prove that my client is unable to perform the work he or she used to perform. In this capacity one learns a lot about the working conditions at many jobs. I can tell you that printing is often a dusty job. Wet ink can be sticky. It is important that newly printed items not stick together. It is also important that the ink on newly printed items not smear. Many types of printing equipment use something like talcum powder to dry the ink. The power is blown between the newly printed items to help dry the ink. This powder can be a real problem for a printer who suffers from a lung disorder such as asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder. A malfunctioning printing machine could easily dump too much of this powder in a batch of printing as could a clumsy printer reloading a printing machine with powder.
May 1, 2009
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