Status Of Social Security's Appropriations

     The "budget deal" that has already passed in the House of Representatives and should soon be passed by the Senate and signed by the President is only a first step. A "budget" only sets forth a rough framework for the appropriations bills that actually give the Social Security Administration (SSA) and other agencies their operating funds. Social Security's appropriations (technically the Limitation on Administrative Expenditures or LAE) is part of the Labor-HHS appropriations bill. The House Appropriations Committee hasn't even released a draft of a Labor-HHS appropriations bill. The Senate Appropriations Committee's Labor-HHS Subcommittee reported out a bill  several months ago which has not yet been acted upon by the full committee. Here's the Subcommittee's summary of the bill's Social Security provisions:

Social Security Administration Administrative Expenses 

• FY 2013 $11,431 million
• FY 2014 President's Request $11,070 million
• FY 2014 Senate Subcommittee $11,965 million

SSA Program Integrity 

• FY 2013 $756 million
• FY 2014 President's Request $273 million
• FY 2014 Senate Subcommittee $1,197 million

     For the time being, SSA is operating on a Continuing Resolution (CR) at last year's rate. It's difficult for SSA and other agencies to operate under a CR since an agency's need to expend money may not be stable from month to month but the CR allots them the same amount of money each month. More important, SSA and other agencies have difficulty planning for the future. They don't know what to expect. Everybody agrees that CRs are bad but we keep getting them.

Merry Christmas!

New Cancer Listing Proposed

     The Social Security Administration has published a Notice of Proposed Rule-Making (NPRM) in the Federal Register to alter its Listing of Impairments for cancer, which is currently referred to in the Listings as neoplastic diseases. An NPRM is just a proposal. The public is allowed to comment on the NPRM. Social Security must consider the comments before issuing a final regulation.

New Staff Instructions On Same Sex Marriages -- Not Much Decided

     Social Security has issued new staff instructions dealing with situations where a claimant has married a person of the same sex in a foreign country where such marriages are legal but is now living in one of the United States that refuses to recognize such marriages. Social Security's position is that it will not recognize such marriages, that it must go by the law of the state in which the claimant is domiciled. However, Social Security is not ready to announce what it will do in the vastly more common case of a person who enters into a same sex marriage within the United States in one of the states where such marriages are legal but who then moves to another state which refuses to recognize same sex marriages. Social Security is still holding such claims waiting for the Department of Justice to tell them what to do.

     I'm starting to wonder whether the Department of Justice is waiting for one of the Courts of Appeals to rule that state laws forbidding recognition of same sex marriages contracted in other states are unconstitutional. Maybe, Justice expects Social Security to just hold these claims for the next year and a half until the Supreme Court considers the issue.

Senate Finance Committee Schedules Hearing

     The United States Senate Committee on Finance, Subcommittee on Social Security, Pensions, and Family Policy has scheduled a hearing for Wednesday, December 18, 2013 at 10:00 on The Role of Social Security, Defined Benefits, and Private Retirement Accounts in the Face of the Retirement Crisis.

U.S. Social Security Benefits Are Low By World Standards

New Social Security Agreement With Switzerland

     The President has notified the Congress of a new Social Security agreement between the United States and Switzerland. This replaces an agreement between the two countries signed in 1988. Agreements such as these generally provide for administrative cooperation between the two countries and totalization of wage credits for situations where a person can qualify for benefits only by combining wages earned in both countries. The agreements also prevent situations in which wages might be subjected to Social Security taxes in both countries. 

     Few people will be affected by this agreement but those few will be affected in major ways. All told, Social Security's international operations affect millions of people.

Services To Be Curtailed

     From the Southtown Star:

In a move that one congressional staff member calls “absolutely devastating” to senior citizens and the poor, the Social Security Administration is planning to eliminate some walk-in office services.

In a letter sent to employee union officials this month, the SSA announced that as of April 1, it will no longer provide benefit verification letters to citizens at its local offices or Social Security number print-outs, which can be used as temporary identification while people wait to replace a lost or misplaced Social Security card.