A Message From The Commissioner

From: ^Commissioner Broadcast
Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2011 11:00 AM
To: Undisclosed recipients
Subject: COMMISSIONER’S BROADCAST--02/23/11

A Message To All SSA And DDS Employees

Subject: The Budget

In periods of uncertainty, rumors and misstatements abound so I want to tell you what I know. During a Continuing Resolution (CR), we are funded at the prior year’s dollar amount. While that is often called “level-funded,” that term does not fit our situation because we have fixed costs like rent and guards that increase each year, and because the Recovery Act money we received last year to handle case work is not part of our CR funding. For nearly half a year, we have had less money than we had last year.

The current CR ends March 4. At that time, Congress can extend the CR again which will continue our funding at last year’s level, pass a budget, or let the CR expire, essentially causing a government-wide shutdown. The truth is that we do not know what Congress will do. We are working hard to deliver the best possible result from Congress and to carefully manage the money we do receive.

As we await Congressional action, we are doing what we can to minimize the budget uncertainties from interfering with your lives and work. You should know that we are considering a variety of scenarios but we have not made any final decisions. We will do what we can to prevent furloughs caused by not having enough money to pay you. That strategy may mean tough choices like cutting back on or eliminating overtime and expanding the hiring freeze.

I regret that I cannot give you precise information about what will happen, but I am uncomfortable not letting you know some of the possible outcomes so that you can begin to plan accordingly. Given all of the uncertainty, I encourage you to be careful about believing everything you hear. I will continue to share what we know as more information becomes available.

Michael J. Astrue

Commissioner

Same Sex Marriages To Be Recognized At Social Security?

The Attorney General has released a statement saying that the Department of Justice will no longer defend the constitutionality of section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) as applied to legally married same-sex couples and will so advise courts.

It would appear to me that Social Security must now recognize legally married same-sex couples. I do not think this would apply to civil unions.

Social Security should give advise to its employees on this subject pretty much immediately.

New Garnishment Rules

From today's Federal Register:

Treasury, SSA [Social Security Administration], VA [Department of Veterans Affairs], RRB [Railroad Retirement Board] and OPM [Office of Personnel Management] (Agencies) are issuing an interim final rule to implement statutory restrictions on the garnishment of Federal benefit payments. The rule establishes procedures that financial institutions must follow when they receive a garnishment order against an account holder who receives certain types of Federal benefit payments by direct deposit. The rule requires financial institutions that receive such a garnishment order to determine the sum of such Federal benefit payments deposited to the account during a two month period, and to ensure that the account holder has access to an amount equal to that sum or to the current balance of the account, whichever is lower.

No Place In A Debate

From Sam Stein writing at the Huffington Post:

Lost amid the budget battles in Congress and the anti-union legislation being considered in several states has been the White House's deliberate decision to take the topic of Social Security reform off the deficit debate menu.

The latest move in that direction came on Tuesday, when Jason Furman, deputy director of the President Barack Obama's National Economic Council, insisted that talk of Social Security reform "is not one you care about" if "you are worried about our long-run fiscal future." ...

Rather than merely ruling out drastic changes to the entitlement program, he is arguing that Social Security has no place in a debate over the deficit ...

Information Technology Progresses

From Information Week Government:

Of the 2.48 million retirement applications filed with the Social Security Administration in fiscal 2010, 37% were submitted online. That's progress for an agency that depends on old mainframe software to deliver services, but a long way from the goal--recommended by an advisory panel of government and business executives--of conducting 90% of such transactions online.

"We need to drive that up substantially," said Social Security CIO Frank Baitman, in a recent interview at the agency's headquarters in Woodlawn, Md. "As customer expectations are changing, they expect to do business with Social Security online." ...

Social Security stands to save millions of dollars by shifting more of its interactions online, according to a recent presentation by Karen Palm, the agency's associate CIO of innovation. For example, it can save $4.5 million annually for every 1% shift in the number of address and status changes that get completed online.

"Skeleton Crew" In Case Of Government Shutdown

From the Federal Times (emphasis added):

The Social Security Administration on Feb. 17 told the American Federation of Government Employees that it wants to start bargaining by March 22 over how it would enact a furlough.

Jay Clary, SSA's acting associate commissioner, told AFGE that the agency has not decided to furlough employees, but that it wants to figure out arrangements in case lawmakers order a governmentwide furlough or if budget negotiations fall apart and the government shuts down.

SSA Chief Human Capital Officer Reginald Wells said the agency has largely planned who would make up a "skeleton crew" that would have to keep working during a shutdown.

"Discussions [about how to implement a possible shutdown] are happening at a very high level on a regular basis these days," Wells said.

And here is more from Reginald Wells from another Federal Times article:

Most of those employees [who would keep working during a government shutdown] would have to maintain computer systems, facilities, and other elements of SSA's infrastructure, or provide security at buildings.

Who Said It?

Guess who said this: "... Social Security is not a contributor to our deficit of any material right now. Social Security is not a big driver of our debt problems. Medicare and Medicaid are the biggest drivers of our future debt problems."

Click here for the answer.

A Job Opening

Posted on Craigs List:

ADVOCATE (Long Island City, NY)

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Date: 2011-02-18, 5:54PM EST
Reply to: interview@binderandbinder.com ^{[Errors when replying to ads?]}

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National Social Security Disability Advocacy company seeking associate attorney for Long Island City, NY office. Duties include administrative hearings, file review and development, and writing. Candidate will travel extensively throughout the country. Must be licensed in any state. Email resume and 3-5 page writing sample to interview@binderandbinder.com.