Reaction To Fox News Attack Story

The Arizona Republic business section contains a reaction to the Fox News attack piece about the conference that Social Security held at the Arizona Biltmore, mostly expressing concern about the local tourism industry.

Non-Attorney Representer Expands

From a press release:

SSC Disability (a Social Service Coordinators company) has announced a name change to Freedom Disability and has expanded its operations into a new corporate headquarters in Shelton, CT. The larger 22,000 square foot facility will accommodate the continued growth of the business, bringing hundreds of new jobs to the state. ...

[T]he expansion to a new facility represents our commitment to the national Disability Services market, as well as our community here in Connecticut. We are pleased to be able to grow and offer new employment opportunities in an otherwise challenging economy. Not only will we be hiring in Shelton, but we will also be adding remote Disability Advocates across the country and in our regional offices in Florida and Arizona." ...

Updated Fee Payment Stats

Updated information on payments of fees to attorneys and others for representing Social Security claimants:

Fee Payments
Month/Year	Volume	Amount
Jan-09	28,423	$101,128,880.69
Feb-09	31,352	$112,791,207.17
Mar-09	29,199	$104,155,187.96
Apr-09	30,963	$110,133,425.19
May-09	36,603	$126,725,262.45
June-09	31,799	$113,962,564.84

Mock Hearing For Congress

From Sheri Abrams's blog:

In an additional effort to promote understanding of the hearings, the ABA [American Bar Association] sponsored a mock Social Security disability hearing for congressional staff members. The session showed them what occurs at the hearings, which ordinarily are closed to the public due to privacy concerns.

Members of the ABA presented the mock hearing May 27 at the U.S. Capitol. ... The Standing Committee on Governmental Affairs sponsored the program, and its chair, Wm. T. (Bill) Robinson III, served as moderator. The mock hearing was cosponsored by 12 ABA entities and staffed by the Governmental Affairs Office. Social Security Deputy Commissioner David V. Foster answered questions from congressional staff.

I Wonder ...

From today's New York Times:

Surging caseloads and a chronic lack of resources to handle them are taking a toll on judges in the nation’s immigration courts, leaving them frustrated and demoralized, a new study has found.

The study, published in a Georgetown University law journal, applied a psychological scale for testing professional stress and exhaustion to 96 immigration court judges who agreed to participate, just under half of all judges hearing immigration cases. The survey found that the strain on them was similar to that on prison wardens and hospital physicians, groups shown in comparable studies to experience exceptionally high stress.

I wonder what you would find if you did the same study with Social Security Administrative Law Judges.

First Mistake On Increased Fee Cap

I posted two days ago that my firm had just received the first fee check of $5,917, computed under the $6,000 fee cap that went into effect on June 22.

It did not take long for the other shoe to drop. Today, we received the first fee check for $5,217 that should have been for $5,917. How long will it take to get this corrected? How long will this sort of error continue?

House Appropriations Committee Markup Begins

The House Appropriations Committee has begun marking up the FY (fiscal year) 2010 appropriations bill covering Social Security. This markup is in subcommittee. The Chairman of the Committee, David Obey, has released a statement giving information about the chairman's mark, that is the starting point for the markup. Here is what it says about Social Security:

...[T]his bill sustains critical support for America’s most vulnerable children, families, and seniors. These investments include: ... $11.4 billion for the Social Security Administration, which provides the single largest dollar increase in the bill and the request – to help the agency process a rising number of retirement and disability claims, make progress in reducing the backlog of disability hearings, and improve services to the public.

The figure for Social Security is $200 million less than what President Obama had asked for. However, I would note that there are rumbles about a possible second economic stimulus bill. If such a bill happens, it will almost certainly include some additional money for Social Security.

Update: Chairman Obey's statement misled me. A more detailed summary of the Chairman's mark shows it to be the same as the President's proposed budget.

Fox News Criticizes Social Security Training Conference

Update: I do not want to claim credit or blame for this story, but you may recall that I had earlier expressed concern about expenditures for conferences such as this.