Robert Ball Building Dedicated

A press release from Friday:

Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, today dedicated the Robert M. Ball Federal Building at the agency’s Woodlawn headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland. Mr. Ball’s son, Jonathan Ball, and other members of the Ball family joined Commissioner Astrue in dedicating the building.

“This is a very exciting day for our family,” said Jonathan Ball. “My father truly dedicated his life to the advancement of Social Security. It is a great satisfaction to have this building, where vital Social Security work takes place, be dedicated to him.”

Robert Ball began his career working in a local Social Security field office in 1939. He held a number of key executive positions and, in 1962, President John F. Kennedy appointed Mr. Ball Commissioner of Social Security. He continued to serve as Commissioner under Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon until his retirement in 1973. He is Social Security’s longest serving Commissioner.

Mr. Ball is widely considered the “Father of Medicare” and played a significant role in the establishment of Social Security disability benefits in the 1950s. After his retirement, he continued to write and speak about Social Security until his death in 2008.

To learn more about Mr. Ball’s career at Social Security, go to www.socialsecurity.gov/history/bobball.html.

Biggs Taking A Bizarre Turn

Andrew Biggs, the former Social Security Deputy Commissioner during the Bush Administration who may be the biggest promoter of Social Security privatization, now thinks that privatizing Social Security just might be unconstitutional.

Pay Attention To What The House Republicans Are Trying To Do

The Republican controlled House Budget Committee announced yesterday that it wants dramatic cut in appropriations for the remainder of the fiscal year. These cuts would amount to a 12.7% reduction in appropriations for the Labor/HHS/Education portion of the budget. This is the portion that includes Social Security. The House Budget Committee has not yet made any allocations within the Labor/HHS/Education appropriation so one cannot say yet what this would amount to for the Social Security Administration. The House Appropriations Committee would certainly have a big say in this as well but more importantly the Senate and the White House would have a say.

If the Social Security Administration were subjected to a 12.7% reduction -- and I do not think that is going to happen -- I would expect large scale reductions in force at Social Security.

Why Not 95?

George Will, a prominent columnist, thinks that the best way to ensure the nation's financial future is to push the age for eligibility for Social Security retirement benefits to 74 and to force the elderly to buy their own insurance instead of relying upon Medicare. In fact, he is not so sure that elderly people should even be receiving much in the way of medical care anyway. Interesting talk from a man of his age.

Security Guard Injured In Virginia

From WDBJ:

A security officer was injured on the job at the Danville [Virginia] Social Security Office Thursday, according to a spokesperson for the Federal Protective Service.

The officer was taken to a local hospital. We do not know the extent of their injuries.

One person was taken into custody by local law enforcement.

Federal investigators are working with the Pittsylvania County Sheriff's Office to figure out what happened.

Update: The Danville Register and Bee says it was a stabbing but provides few additional details.

Big News For Urbana

From Gazette.Net:

The Urbana [Maryland] Corporate Center will soon be home to a new 400,000-square-foot National Service Center for the Social Security Administration, according to the Urbana center's developer.

Thomas Natelli, CEO of Natelli Communities in Gaithersburg, said Thursday that the General Services Administration chose the Urbana site, where about 200 new jobs are expected.

The project will have a budget of $500 million and is expected to be complete by the end of 2013, according to Natelli. The new service center is planned for use predominantly as a primary data operations center for the agency, along with some office space.

Appropriations Subcommittee Members Announced

The members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee having jurisdiction over the Social Security Administration have been announced:

Republicans
Denny Rehberg, Montana, Chairman
Jerry Lewis, California
Rodney Alexander, Louisiana
Jack Kingston, Georgia
Kay Granger, Texas
Mike Simpson, Idaho
Jeff Flake, Arizona
Cynthia Lummis, Wyoming


Democrats
Rosa DeLauro, Connecticut, Ranking Member
Nita Lowey, New York
Jesse Jackson Jr., Illinois
Lucille Roybal-Allard, California
Barbara Lee, California

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My apologies for misspelling your name, Pittsburgh. I live in a city named after Sir Walter Raleigh. Residents of this city take amusement at the fact that our city's name is frequently misspelled since we know that Sir Walter used as many as forty different spellings of his name, including "Rawleigh", "Ralegh" and "Rawley" but never used Raleigh!