Happy New Year!

An Historical Question

Is the health care reform bill passed this year the most important piece of legislation signed into law since the Social Security Act?

The two other pieces of legislation that I can think of that might compare would be Medicare and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Medicare was and is extremely important but this new legislation gives health care to far more people. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was of such a different nature that comparisons are difficult.

What do you think?

Data Theft At Social Security Contractor

A New York television station is reporting that a man who was working on computers belonging to a contractor hired by Social Security downloaded personal information on 15,000 New Yorkers who had applied for disability benefits. The alleged culprit has been charged and those whose personal information was downloaded have been notified.

Furloughs May Continue In California

From the Contra Costa Times:

For more than a year, state workers who go through disability applications were ordered by [California] Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to take two or three unpaid days off each month.

That's a practice that disability advocates say has hurt disabled workers and state employees but hasn't helped the state.

But it's a practice that could continue, though to a lesser degree, after Schwarzenegger leaves office. ...

[T]he Social Security Administration has sent a letter to Gov.-elect Jerry Brown, asking him to ensure that SSDI processors are "exempt from any sort of furloughs or pay freezes or overtime restrictions."

It's not clear, though, if anything will change under Brown's leadership. Brown spokesman Evan Westrup pointed out that the once-per-month furloughs are now part of a new contract between the state and the union representing SSDI processors and that undoing those furloughs could require renegotiating that contract.

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