Social Security Explanation Of Phoenix Conference

The Social Security Administration has prepared an explanation of the recent Regional Management Training Forum it held at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix. It is obvious that Social Security obtained an extraordinarily good deal from the hotel. I did not see an explanation of the motivational dance troupe, but that may have been covered in an attachment that is not available to me.

My problem with this meeting is not where it was held, but whether it should have been held at all. It would not have been much cheaper for the meeting participants to have stayed at a Motel 6 while meeting at Social Security's Western Program Service Center in Richmond, California. The problem I have is whether the meeting should have been held at all at a time when Social Security's field offices cannot answer their telephones. Does Social Security management understand the severity of the staffing problems at its field offices?

Gregory To Head NASI

From a press release:

Janice Gregory has been elected the tenth president of the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI), a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization made up of the nation's leading experts on social insurance. Gregory is the former Senior Vice President for the ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC), an organization that represents the health and retirement plans of major corporations, and a founding member of NASI.

“With Social Security once again emerging as a major issue in social insurance, NASI is fortunate that Janice Gregory has agreed to serve as its president. Janice Gregory is one of the most respected national leaders on social insurance and retirement security issues,” said Kenneth Apfel, NASI Chairman and Professor of the Practice at the Maryland School of Public Policy. “It is hard to imagine a better match between the issues that NASI and the nation will face in the years ahead and the talents of its new president.”

Gregory directed legislative affairs at the ERISA Industry Committee from 1984 through 2006. From 1979 through 1983, she coordinated activities of the Subcommittee on Social Security for its Chairman, the Honorable J.J. Pickle of Texas. She was awarded the Social Security Administration Commissioner’s Citation in 1984. She is a contributing author to Prospects for Social Security Reform and Checks and Balances in Social Security, and is principal author of The Vital Connection: An Analysis of the Impact of Social Security Reform on Employer-Sponsored Retirement Plans and Getting the Job Done: A White Paper on Emerging Pension Issues. ...

Gregory succeeds Margaret Simms, Institute Fellow and Director of the Low-Income Working Families project at the Urban Institute, who was president of NASI for two years.

ABC Story On Social Security Conference In Phoenix

You know it's bad when the title of the piece is Social Security Execs Boogie Down at Lavish Phoenix Conference.

I have been to a lot of conferences but I have never been to one where a motivational dance troupe performed.

Update: From FederalTimes.com:

...[L]eading members of two House and Ways Committee panels are accusing the agency leadership of being tone-deaf in holding the retreat at such a posh resort at a time of high unemployment and record government deficits.

“At a time when millions of Americans are out of work and having to do more with less, and when the SSA has received significant new funding to address near record backlogs after longstanding funding requests made before our subcommittees, it is essential that great care be taken to use administrative funding wisely, in a way that brings the most value to the American people SSA serves,” the members wrote in a July 10 letter to SSA Commissioner Michael Astrue.

Reps. John Tanner, D-Tenn., and Sam Johnson, R-Texas, who are the chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the Social Security subcommittee; and John Linder, R-Ga., who is the top Republican on the income security and family support subcommittee, wrote the letter.

The lawmakers asked Astrue to provide by July 17:

• Details of costs for travel, rooms, meals, speakers, entertainment, conference room rental and equipment charges.

• The number of official hours SSA employees used traveling and attending the conference, as well as the number of employees who attended and their job titles.

• The process used to select the retreat location, including “whether government contracting rules were followed and whether the hotel housing the conference was the lowest bidder.”

House Health Care Bill Does Not Eliminate Medicare Waiting Period

The Democratic leadership of the House of Representatives has released its version of a bill to improve health care in the United States. It is a very long bill and I could have missed something, but I do not think there is anything in it to eliminate the 24 month waiting period for Medicare after one becomes entitled to disability benefits under Title II of the Social Security Act. Actually, the waiting period is more like 29 or 30 months since it is on top of the five month waiting period after becoming disabled before entitlement to cash benefits begins -- and the five months must be full calendar months. Stop work on July 2 and you cannot count July as a waiting period month.

ALJ In Training Blog

Social Security has some recently hired Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) in training somewhere in the D.C. area. One of them is keeping a blog. The latest: Sonia Sotomayor might be staying at the same hotel as the newly minted ALJs. But would she be staying at a Residence Inn?

SSAB Report On PEBES

The Social Security Advisory Board (SSAD) has issued a draft report on what it refers to as "The Social Security Statement," a document that Social Security refers to as the Personal Earnings and Benefit Estimate Statement (PEBES). This is the yearly report sent to almost everyone who had earnings in a year showing their earnings history and giving information on projected benefit payments under Social Security.

People spend little time reading their PEBES. I doubt that any improvement in PEBES will help.

House Appropriations Markup Scheduled

The Labor-HHS Appropriations bill for Fiscal Year (FY) 2010, which includes funding for Social Security, has been scheduled for markup by the entire House Appropriations Committee on July 17 at 9:00. I have still not seen the bill as it cleared subcommittee last week. However, the Chairman's "mark" which was the starting point for subcommittee work, had the same amount for Social Security as President Obama proposed.

Startling Numbers On DDS Backlogs

Courtesy of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) here are some numbers on backlogs at the Disability Determination Services (DDS) which make decisions at the initial and reconsideration levels on Social Security disability claims. The increases in receipts and backlogs are startling. I cannot understand the dramatic differences in new receipts between the states. Certainly, differences in unemployment rates do not explain what is going on.