Social Security Loses Another Fugitive Felon Case

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has just held in Clark v. Astrue that Social Security misinterpreted the statutory provision prohibiting payment of benefits to "fugitive felons." This opinion concerns claimants with alleged probation and parole violations. This is a class action case that will affect a large number of people.

Social Security had earlier settled the case of Martinez v. Astrue which involved a different fugitive felon issue.

The underlying problem is that Social Security adopted ridiculously overbroad interpretations of the fugitive felon provisions enacted by Congress. Congress had in mind murders and rapists. The reality was that the vast majority of those caught up by the fugitive felon provisions, as interpreted by Social Security, had committed, at most, relatively minor crimes. Many had no idea that anyone considered them a fugitive. Some had been convicted of nothing. The records that Social Security was using to declare claimants fugitives were rife with errors. I can give an example that is not directly on point but close enough to give an idea of the problems with these records. After one of my clients was approved for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits, we were informed that no benefits would be paid since my client was in prison in New Mexico. This made no sense since she was living in North Carolina. My client's response was one which makes New Mexicans cringe: "What are they talking about? I've never been to Mexico!" When I contacted the New Mexico prison authorities, they told me that they had never had a prisoner with my client's name or Social Security number.

Regenstrief Institute Gets Contract

The Regenstrief Institute, which is part of the Indiana University School of Medicine, has been awarded an electronic records contract by Social Security. The amount is not mentioned in the press release.

Different Commissioners, Different Agendas

Things have changed a bit when it comes to Social Security's relations with the press. Here is the count on the number of press releases in recent years. Michael Astrue became Commissioner in 2008. It is like former Commissioner Barnhart was trying to make her agency disappear from public view. That is definitely not the desire of the current Commissioner.

• 2001 -- 13
• 2002 -- 18
• 2003 -- 12
• 2004 -- 7
• 2005 -- 8
• 2006 -- 7
• 2007 --14
• 2008 -- 19
• 2009 -- 30
• 2010 so far -- 12

ALJ Authority To Approve Fee Petitions Raised To $10,000

From the Office of Social Security's Chief Administrative Law Judge:

Effective January 21, 2010, the individual with initial jurisdiction for authorizing a fee under the fee petition process may authorize a fee up to and including $10,000.00.

This is dated January 21 but was just posted online in the last week.

Colvin Nomination Still Pending

President Obama has just made fifteen recess appointments. Republicans in the Senate had been stonewalling these nominations. The recess appointments are good until the beginning of the next Congress.

The President did not give Carolyn Colvin a recess appointment as Deputy Commissioner of Social Security. Her nomination has been pending in the Senate for more than six months.

Does anyone know what Senate Republicans have against Ms. Colvin?

It Figures

From the Washington Post (emphasis added):

The call to arms was issued at 5:55 a.m. last Friday.

"To all modern Sons of Liberty: THIS is your time. Break their windows. Break them NOW."

These were the words of Mike Vanderboegh, a 57-year-old former militiaman from Alabama, who took to his blog urging people who opposed the historic health-care reform legislation -- he calls it "Nancy Pelosi's Intolerable Act" -- to throw bricks through the windows of Democratic offices nationwide.

"So, if you wish to send a message that Pelosi and her party [that they] cannot fail to hear, break their windows," Vanderboegh wrote on the blog, Sipsey Street Irregulars. "Break them NOW. Break them and run to break again. Break them under cover of night. Break them in broad daylight. Break them and await arrest in willful, principled civil disobedience. Break them with rocks. Break them with slingshots. Break them with baseball bats. But BREAK THEM." ...

Vanderboegh was unapologetic in a 45-minute telephone interview with The Washington Post early Thursday. He said he believes throwing bricks through windows sends a warning to Democratic lawmakers that the health-care reform legislation they passed Sunday has caused so much unrest that it could result in a civil war.

"The federal government should not have the ability to command us to buy something that it decides we should buy," Vanderboegh said. The government, he added, has "absolutely no idea the number of alienated who feel that their backs are to the wall are out here . . . who are not only willing to resist this law to the very end of their lives, but are armed and are capable of making such resistance possible and perhaps even initiating a civil war."...

Vanderboegh said he once worked as a warehouse manager but now lives on government disability checks. He said he receives $1,300 a month because of his congestive heart failure, diabetes and hypertension.

File Your Comments On DAA

On January 29th, Social Security published a notice requesting comments on the agency's operating procedures for determining disability when Drug Abuse or Alcoholism (DAA) is involved. This notice surprised a lot of people, including me, because we had thought the issues involved to be well settled and non-controversial. Any significant revision in Social Security's settled interpretations could be extremely controversial.

We still do not know what is behind this request for comments but the time period for filing comments is rapidly drawing to a close. March 30 is the last day. Comments may be filed online.

The Drumbeat Starts

The New York Times is running an article telling us to be scared and to start thinking about cutting benefits because the Social Security trust funds are paying out a little more money this year than they are taking in.