Astrue Resigning Effective February 13

From: ^Commissioner Broadcast
Sent: Friday, February 08, 2013 11:52 AM
Subject: COMMISSIONER'S BROADCAST--02/08/13

A Message To All SSA And DDS Employees

Subject:  Farewell and Thank You

In a few hours, my family and I will be going to the White House to thank President Obama for his support of the agency and to submit my formal resignation, which will be effective at the close of business on Wednesday, February 13.

The job of Commissioner is a huge responsibility and a huge opportunity.  Thanks to all of you who helped me shoulder that responsibility and worked with me to improve the lives of our fellow Americans.  I leave knowing the agency is in your good hands.

I've enjoyed meeting so many of you and really appreciate the emails you've sent to let me see our agency through your eyes.  Your many recent notes of well wishes have humbled and warmed me.  I hope that you'll keep talking with future Commissioners who will surely benefit from that engagement as I have.

You are the heart of our agency and I thank you for allowing me to lead you.  Please know that I'll be rooting for you from the sidelines.

God Bless.

Michael J. Astrue

Commissioner

OPM Says ALJ Register To Open Soon

     The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued an announcement yesterday saying that it will soon open a new examination for Administrative Law Judges (ALJs). They did not say when this will happen or how long the examination will be open. OPM's use of the term "examination" is misleading since there is no examination in the sense that one might take a calculus exam in college. The ALJ examination is primarily a review of applications submitted by job candidates. 

     In the past, OPM has at times only accepted ALJ applications for ridiculously short periods of time -- like 24 hours. This has been a huge advantage for those who work at Social Security where word spreads quickly. There have been reports of attorneys at Social Security's Office of General Counsel flying out the doors after word spread that OPM was taking ALJ applications. Attorneys rushed home to file their applications before the register closed.

     I'm not sure why OPM is doing this. I don't see how Social Security or any other agency is going to be hiring ALJs in the near future given Republican efforts to prevent adequate funding for government operations. Unless something changes soon, we're more likely to see partial furloughs of Social Security ALJs than new Social Security ALJs being hired.

Bill Bradley On Who Should Be Next Social Security Commissioner

     The Baltimore Sun is running an op ed piece by Bill Bradley, the former N.J. Senator (and University of Maryland basketball player) on the desiderata for a new Social Security Commissioner. No candidate's name is mentioned but the piece seems slanted towards James Roosevelt.

     Correction: I was confusing Bradley with Tom McMillan, who was a Congressman from Maryland. Bradley played his college ball at Princeton.

Obama Social Security Number Craziness Continues

     If you thought the birther litigation about President Obama's allegedly stolen Social Security number was over after the President decisively won a second term, you'd be wrong. I don't think the completion of Obama's second term will stop this nuttiness. A court in the state of Washington has recently fined one of the birthers almost $13,000 for frivolous litigation that alleged that the President has a phony Social Security number.

You Want An Example Of Government Waste?

     I didn't ask for it but someone at the Social Security Advisory Board (SSAB) was kind enough to put me on the mailing list for printed copies of their reports. I just got the printed copy of  Filing for Social Security Disability Benefits: What Impact Does Professional Representation Have on the Process at the Initial Application Level. It's been available online for about three months. Forget the negligible merits of the report. Let's focus on the printing of the report. It's printed on paper that is almost as stiff and slick as the stock my firm uses for our business cards. I don't think I've ever seen a magazine printed on stock this thick. This makes the report so stiff it's a little difficult to even read it. It's slick paper too, slicker than my firm's business cards which are themselves printed on coated stock. At least the report isn't in full color but it does use two colors (black and brown). Even two color printing costs money. Printing like this takes time. That's why it took three months to print it. No one would think of printing such an ephemeral document in this way if they had any concern with cost. Don't blame the Social Security Administration. The SSAB has its own appropriation controlled by its deficit-hating Republican majority.

"If You're Not Hypocrites"

     From R.J. Eskow:

Alan Simpson's the lead pitchman for a billionaire- and corporate-funded initiative to slash Social Security that has subjected the public to years of nonstop haranguing and lecturing.

The lecturing's gotten crude, too, as when Simpson insisted that anyone who disagrees with him is shoveling "bullsh*t."

That's tough talk, but it's a funny thing: When the public makes tough decisions, as it did in a new National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI) survey, the tough-talking Mr. Simpson is nowhere to be found.

Much of this verbal abuse has been funded by right-wing billionaire Pete Peterson. Peterson tried to amplify the impression of an anti-deficit groundswell through a kind of three-card monte in which he funds many different shell organizations staffed by the same people and delivering the same message. They include the Concord Coalition, which may have been the first to trot out the phrase "we must make the hard choices on Social Security."

That statement's almost always conjoined with another Peterson-funded theme: that their harsh, right-wing benefit-cutting proposals are based on "arithmetic, not ideology." ...

A new survey from the National Academy of Social Insurance reinforces previous polling which showed Americans across the political spectrum oppose benefit cuts to Social Security and want wealthy Americans to pay more.

But the NASI study did something new: It presented respondents with a range of options and allowed them to select among them. The results were striking, and revealed a rock-solid consensus which spanned generations and political persuasions: Americans want wealthy people to pay their fair share, but they're willing to chip in more themselves - so much so, in fact, that Social Security benefits could be increased. ...

Younger Americans are willing to make the hard decisions, too.  87 percent of Gen X-ers and 85 percent of Gen Y-ers were also willing to pay more in taxes in order to protect the program. ...

Did you think Republicans never want to pay more taxes? Not true, at least when it comes to Social Security. Three out of four Republicans said they'd be willing to pay more to protect the program. So did 86 percent of independents - and 91 percent of Democrats.

What's more, 62 percent of Republicans thought we should consider increasing the program's benefits. So did 71 percent of independents and 84 percent of Democrats. ...

Guess who isn't willing to step up and pitch in?  The millionaires, billionaires, and corporations behind the deficit hysteria. Their pampered pitchpeople are hiding, too.

After all, the NASI survey's been out for a week and we haven't heard a peep from any of them. Not one of them has congratulated the American people for making those "hard choices." Not one of them has signed on to promote the NASI survey's common-sense, fiscally responsible agenda for Social Security.

Not even straight-shootin' Alan Simpson. ...

And the public's still being lectured. One lecture came from Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein who, thanks to the Wall Street bailout, benefited rom the largest free lunch in history.

Pack it in, guys. In fact, you should be celebrating: The public's made those hard choices you've been talking about. If you're not hypocrites you'll fight for their Social Security agenda, not yours.

If you're not hypocrites.

No Sign Of Action On Commissioner Nomination

     The AP has a story up about various nominations that President Obama is expected to make in the near future. Mentioned are openings at Commerce, Labor, Interior, Office of Management and Budget, Energy and Transportation and Environmental Protection Agency. Not mentioned is a nomination for the Social Security Administration.

Two Proposed Listings Changes And One New Final Listing

     Social Security has published in the Federal Register Notices of Proposed Rule-Making (NPRMs) for new Listings for genitourinary and respiratory system disorders and also a notice of a final rule establishing a new Listing for congenital disorders that affect multiple body systems. The National Association of Disability Examiners (NADE) had expressed concern when the multiple body system Listing was proposed. NADE believed that the new Listing would establish a significant and unrealistic barrier that would prevent many persons with Down Syndrome from qualifying for disability benefits. However, NADE was the only commenter on this proposal. I hope that ARC carefully reviewed this and that NADE was wrong. ARC gave Commissioner Astrue a big award. They wouldn't have done that if Astrue was about to dramatically harm people with Down Syndrome, would they? Would Social Security really want to deny benefits to people with Down Syndrome? I hope not.