Interesting Sidelight On Sotomayor Nomination

President Obama has nominated Judge Sonia Sotomayor to become an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court. Interestingly, Wikipedia says that at age 8 Sotomayor was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. I think many of the people who read this blog understand the significance of this history. Her diabetes is already raising concerns.

Stimulus Checks For Dead People

There is a report that Social Security has sent about 10,000 $250 economic stimulus checks to people it knew had died. The agency's excuse is that it did not have enough time to clean up its databases. Allegedly, one check was sent to a woman who had died in 1967.

Ten thousand mistakes sounds like a lot, but in context, it is far less than one mistake per thousand checks sent out. I doubt that this is anything to get excited about.

Social Security has given a contract to Oracle for computer work on a recovery system for these payments. The notice posted in FedBizOpps.Com estimates that there will be 15,000 to 20,000 incorrect payments.

For The Sake Of Comparison

From VA Watchdog dot Org:

According to the Monday Morning Workload Report (MMWR) of the Veterans' Benefits Administration dated January 5, 2009, the backlog for veterans' benefits claims stood at 808,607. Report is here
...http://www.vba.va.gov/REPORTS/mmwr/2009/010509.xls

The same report for May 11, 2009 shows the backlog at 916,456. That report is here ... http://www.vba.va.gov/REPORTS/mmwr/2009/051109.xls

This is an increase of nearly 108,000 claims in the backlog in just a bit over four months ... an increase of 13.3%.

Retirement Claims Surge

From the Los Angeles Times:

Instead of seeing older workers staying on the job longer as the economy has worsened, the Social Security system is reporting a major surge in early retirement claims that could have implications for the financial security of millions of baby boomers.

Since the current federal fiscal year began Oct. 1, claims have been running 25% ahead of last year, compared with the 15% increase that had been projected as the post-World War II generation reaches eligibility for early retirement, according to Stephen C. Goss, chief actuary for the Social Security Administration.

This also has implications for workloads at Social Security field offices.

I Don't Endorse This

The Robing Room website allows anyone to rate a Federal District Court Judge or Magistrate Judge and to see the evaluations posted by others.

They Must Be Ergonomic!

A notice posted on FedBizOpps.Gov reveals that the Social Security Administration "is seeking quotations for a quantity of 8,800 ergonomic shaped water bottles with logo imprint."

Wouldn't It Be Nice

From the Federal Times:

Momentum has gathered behind the idea of advanced appropriations for the Veterans Affairs Department to the point that a chief supporter of says he would be stunned if anything derails what has become the top priority for veterans groups....

“It would be stunning if Congress or the administration backed away from advanced appropriations now,” [Peter] Dickinson [a lobbyist] said....

The bill passed by the committee, S 423, is called the Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act. It authorizes two years of funding for veterans programs instead of the traditional one year, beginning in fiscal 2011. The second year would be advanced funding for medical programs, including health care services, support and facility costs. Advanced funding would be based on projections of costs, including patient load and funding to cover increased medical costs.

The comptroller general, who is the head of the Government Accountability Office, would be responsible for overseeing both how the estimates are made and how the money is spent, a safeguard against low-balling the budget. The report on the adequacy and accuracy of the projects would be made public, allowing for debate over whether proposed funding is sufficient. ...

Two year funding for Social Security would be awfully nice, and so would more or less independent budget advice to help avoid low-ball budget requests. We have certainly seen low-ball budget requests at Social Security.

How Naive

David Wessel writing in today's Wall Street Journal:

For lots of workers, particularly those over 40, the alternative to looking for work is applying for Social Security disability benefits -- and dropping out of the labor force forever

Of course, many of those collecting disability truly can't work. But for workers with minor disabilities who could and, in many cases, would rather work, the Social Security benefits become the only way to pay the rent. Applications for Social Security disability in April were 20% higher than a year earlier. The application process can be arduous, often taking two years. Even among those whose applications are ultimately rejected, 60% never go back to work, says David Autor, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist who has studied disability trends. ...

One approach is to tweak the disability benefit to encourage recipients, more than current rules do, to think of the benefit as a temporary, rather than an all-or-nothing, permanent condition. At a recent town-hall meeting, Mr. Obama was asked about lifting limits on the wages a person on disability can earn. The president's answer suggested he'd been briefed recently: "Social Security disability has gone up significantly during this recession. In principle...I would like to raise the income limits to encourage people to become more self-sufficient. In practice, it costs money on the front end, even though long term it may save money." But he made no promises: "What I'd like to do is examine this in the broader context of Social Security reform and Medicare/Medicaid reform," he said.

"Many" of those on Social Security disability benefits can't work? People with "minor" disabilities on Social Security disability benefits? The Wall Street Journal has not been the same since Rupert Murdock took over.