Not Acting Like A Caretaker

Social Security

Memorandum

Date:         February 14, 2013                                                                                                                   Refer To:  S7K

To:          Senior Staff

From:        Carolyn W. Colvin  /s/

              Acting Commissioner

Subject:    Executive Personnel Assignments - INFORMATION

As one of my first communications as Acting Commissioner, I want to share with you the makeup of my immediate executive team as well as several other Senior Executive Service (SES)  leadership changes.

Jim Kissko, formerly the Deputy Inspector General, is Chief of Staff. 

Kate Thornton, formerly one of my Senior Advisors, is Deputy Chief of Staff.

Karie Kilgore, SES Candidate Development Program (CDP) Class V graduate, is the Executive Secretary. 

Stacy Rodgers, Greg Pace, and Dot Smallwood will continue as my Senior Advisors.

In the Office of Budget, Finance and Management, Mike Gallagher will leave for the Appeals Council March 4.  Pete Spencer, former Regional Commissioner in San Francisco prior to his retirement, has agreed to return and serve as the Deputy Commissioner for Budget, Finance and Management through the end of the year.

In the Office of Operations, Chicago Regional Commissioner (RC) Nancy Berryhill will serve as the Acting Deputy Commissioner for Operations.  Terrie Gruber will resume her position as Assistant Deputy Commissioner (ADC) for Operations.  Marianna LaCanfora will remain as a second ADC for Operations during this transition.  Marcia Mosley will serve as Acting RC, Chicago, while Nancy is on assignment in headquarters.

In the Office of Systems, Marti Eckert, currently Deputy Associate Commissioner (DAC) for Telecommunications and Systems Operations (OTSO), will serve as Acting Associate Commissioner for Information Systems when Brad Flick reports to his new post in Chicago.

Dave Thomas, currently the Assistant Associate Commissioner (AAC), OTSO (Enterprise IT Services Management), will serve as Acting DAC, OTSO.  Sylvia Heist, SES CDP Class V, will serve as Acting AAC, OTSO (Enterprise IT Services Management). 

Commissioner Astrue’s executive team will report to new assignments next week.  Jo Tittel and Tiffany Flick will move to the Office of Appellate Operations.  Dean Landis has accepted an external assignment with the National Institutes of Health.  Steve Nash will move to the Office of the Deputy Commissioner for Disability Adjudication and Review.   I would like to thank all of Commissioner Astrue’s team for their fine work and dedication to the agency’s mission.  I am confident they will continue that support in their new roles.

Please join me in congratulating everyone on their new roles and giving them your full support.

Some Things To Parse In First Message From Acting Commissioner

     An e-mail that went out yesterday:

From: ^Commissioner Broadcast
Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2013 9:22 AM
Subject: COMMISSIONER'S BROADCAST--02/14/13

A Message To All SSA And DDS Employees

Subject: Together, We Will Move Forward

“Today, a hope of many years’ standing is in large part fulfilled…. We have tried to frame a law which will give some measure of protection to the average citizen and to his family against the loss of a job and against poverty-ridden old age.”

The words that Franklin Roosevelt spoke upon signing the Social Security Act into law in 1935 have added meaning for me today. It is with great pride and humility that I assume the role as the Acting Commissioner of Social Security.

I consider it an honor of a lifetime to work with each of you in fulfilling FDR’s great vision for providing a measure of economic security to more than 60 million Americans—the elderly, persons with disabilities, survivors and dependents.

Please join me in thanking Commissioner Astrue for his years of service and leadership. We wish him and his family a safe journey and much success as they return to Massachusetts.

In the coming days and months, Social Security is sure to remain a vital part of the domestic agenda as the nation continues to grapple with its fiscal challenges. It will be more important than ever that we build upon the great legacy left to us.

Whether you are helping people every day by providing direct service to the public or supporting those who do, you are the key to our success. I sincerely appreciate what you do every day on behalf of the citizens of this country.

I know I can count on your continued support and commitment. I will be meeting with many of you in the coming days to share my leadership vision, and solicit your ideas and suggestions. We must work with renewed vigor to fulfill the program’s great promise. Together, we will move forward.

Carolyn W. Colvin

Acting Commissioner

      There's no mention of the President nominating a Commissioner. Colvin is talking of her "leadership vision." Does a person who is only acting as a caretaker for a few weeks need to communicate a "leadership vision"?

Astrue Speaks Out

     From an interview that outgoing Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue gave to the Associated Press:

I think that Social Security is a gem. I think it is the most successful domestic program in the history of the United States government and it is fraying because of inattention to its problems. And I think it’s a shame that Washington cannot get its act together to look at Social Security in detail in isolation and say, What do we need to do? ...

Q: There are some in Congress who say only benefit cuts should be considered — no tax increases. Others say benefit cuts should be off the table. Where do you come down?

A: Nothing is going to happen if you establish preconditions for the conversation. I do think that for the people who simply want to tax more, you need to be very mindful of the fact that that tax will fall disproportionately on the younger generation and that if you’re not careful, that could be a huge economic drag. ...

Q: One of the few issues that the president and Republicans in Congress agree on is changing the way the government measures inflation. As you know, this would reduce the annual cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, for Social Security recipients. Advocates for seniors hate the idea. They want bigger COLAs, not smaller ones. What do you think?

A: As a general matter I do think that the president and the Congress are right that before you start talking about increases in the retirement age and things like that it’s appropriate to try to have a conversation about what we might be able to do in terms of COLA adjustments.

Q: The age when retirees can receive full benefits is gradually increasing from 66 to 67. There are proposals to increase it gradually even more, perhaps as high as 70. What do you think of those proposals?

A: I think there’s some historical inevitability that we will move in that direction. How far, I don’t think is historically inevitable. Part of this we need to remember is not that the system is flawed or that there are evil people around here. I mean, we should celebrate a little bit of good news. Most of the pressure on the system comes from the fact that we’ve had great medical advances and people are living a lot longer than before.

Q: Social Security payroll taxes only apply to the first $ 113,700 of a worker’s wages. There have been proposals to increase this threshold or even eliminate it, applying the tax to all wages. What do you think of those ideas?

A: I think there’s some historic inevitability on at least some lifting of the (payroll tax) cap. I think that most politicians and I think most economists I’ve talked to generally think that that would have less of a negative impact on the economy than raising the rate itself.

Q: Applications for disability benefits increased dramatically when the economy went bad. Why did that happen?

A: I think a lot of people applied out of economic desperation. Very few of those people actually ended up getting benefits. If you look at the numbers, it’s one of the reasons why our approval rates have dropped dramatically in the last few years. ...

Q: The Association of Administrative Law Judges says that in order to reduce backlogs some judges are deciding more than 500 cases a year. Is that too many cases to do a thorough job on each one?

A: No, not at all. We set for the first time productivity standards in 2007. It was actually done by the chief judge, and it was done looking at best demonstrated practices of existing judges. At that point in time about 40 percent of the judges were doing 500 to 700 cases a year. And so that’s what we set as our goal, and that’s what it is, it’s a goal to shoot for. … Now, about 80 percent of the judges hit that goal.

      I wonder where Astrue goes from here. Think tank? Teaching? Writing poetry? All of these?

     By the way, I don't think there's any "historical inevitability" about raising full retirement age. In fact, I think that's quite unlikely. In retrospect, I'm amazed it happened the first time.

"Secret ALJ" Policy On Its Last Legs

     For months, Social Security has been withholding the identity of the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) scheduled to hold a hearing until the day of the hearing. This "secret ALJ" policy is on its last legs. The agency has been unable to defend the "secret ALJ" policy in court -- and I mean literally unable to defend the policy. Social Security has to work through the U.S. Attorneys when it is sued and the U.S. Attorneys are refusing to defend Social Security on Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits on this issue, not that the agency had much of a defense anyway. Social Security is now revealing the identity of ALJs scheduled to hold hearings to claimants and their attorneys who file FOIA requests. The National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) advised its members of this fact yesterday afternoon. It can only be anticipated that Social Security's Office of Privacy and Disclosure (which handles FOIA requests) will be deluged with FOIA requests which are easily made online.

     Michael Astrue is gone. There is no reason to continue this failed policy a day longer.

Major Downtime For Online Claims And Services But What Is Down?

     From a message I just received from Social Security:

Due to scheduled systems maintenance, some of our Online Claims & Services applications will not be available from:

• 11 PM on Friday, February 15 until 5 AM on Saturday, February 16
• 11 PM on Saturday, February 16 until 5 AM on Monday, February 18.

     I know it's over the weekend but the ambiguity of this bothers me. The "when" question is answered but the "what" is mostly unanswered. Why does it say "some"? Does this mean that the only thing that is down is filing applications? If other online services are down, what are they? What about the appointed representative suite of services? Does this affect Social Security employees who might be working over the weekend as well?

Astrue's Last Day

     This is Michael Astrue's last day as Commissioner of Social Security. Readers have already expressed their opinions on Astrue's term as Commissioner in a poll. Expand on those thoughts now by commenting in response to this post. What do you think of the job that Astrue has done? What do you think are his accomplishments? What were his mistakes? Did he change the agency in positive ways? What is his legacy?

Why Social Security Shouldn't Be Cut

From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Social Security Cuts On The Table But Not Medicare Cuts

     The White House said today that increasing the age at which Medicare is first available from 65 to 67 is off the table but reducing Social Security by switching to the Chained CPI method of computing Cost of Living Adjustments is on the table.