ALJ Pay Frozen As Well

From the Washington Post:

The two-year pay freeze that is now law for federal employees on the pay scale known as the General Schedule will also apply to hundreds of thousands of civil servants whose wages are set under a separate salary system, according to an executive order signed last week by President Obama. ...

They include ... administrative law judges and attorneys ...

Attorney User Fee Remains At 6.3%

Social Security has announced that the user fee charged for withholding and paying fees to attorneys and some others for representing Social Security claimants will remain at 6.3

5 in 2011.

Permanent End For FCIP

From the Washington Post:

President Obama plans to issue an executive order, perhaps as early as this week, ending a federal internship program that critics say circumvents proper hiring practices.

The program has drawn fire from federal employee unions and from the government board that oversees federal hiring practices, which ruled in November that the program undermined the rights of veterans, in particular, who were seeking federal work.

According to a draft copy of the executive order, which The Washington Post obtained from a person involved with the review process, the program will be terminated in March and be replaced with a program clearly designed to provide short-term federal work opportunities for recent graduates of schools of all kinds.

Updated Fee Payment Numbers

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

Fee Payments
Month/Year	Volume	Amount
Jan-10	32,227	$111,440,046.23
Feb-10	29,914	$105,708,101.59
Mar-10	34,983	$122,874,426.87
Apr-10	44,740	$153,478,589.32
May-10	34,686	$119,527,194.40
June-10	32,432	$111,887,579.72
July-10	32,232	$132,328,622.27
Aug-10	34,755	$119,424,346.42
Sept-10	32,660	$108,650,373.60
Oct-10	38,705	$128,133,064.77
Nov-10	31,788	$106,559,848.38

For Unto Us A Child Is Born

Merry Christmas!

Contract To Lockheed Martin

Social Security has awarded a contract to Lockheed Martin for development of a new Disability Case Processing System (DCPS). The contract is for up to $200 million. It appears that Social Security can get out of this contract at just about any point, however.

Has This Been In Doubt?

From Emergency Message EM-10092:

The purpose of this message is to inform all technicians in the field office (FO) and program service center (PSC) that, without exception, we must make a determination on the reconsideration issue when we receive an SSA-561-U2 (Request for Reconsideration) for a Title II or Title XVI overpayment (OP).