And We’re Back To Non-Acquisence

      From the New York Times live blog of today’s oral argument on the case presenting the issue of whether the 14th Amendment confers birthright citizenship on all born in the U.S, as well as an important issue on universal injunctions:

Sauer [the Solicitor General] says the administration would follow a Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of birthright citizenship. But he hedged on whether it would follow federal appeals court rulings within their geographic jurisdiction, saying the government “generally” would do so.

     This issue has quite a history at Social Security, although not a recent history because the government had completely given up on it.

Pathetic

      From HuffPost:

… In an internal memo to operations employees obtained by HuffPost, a Social Security official said the agency has received more retirement claims than in any previous year, thanks in part to the ongoing retirement of baby boomers.

The backlog has grown to 575,000 pending retirement claims, with more than 140,000 of those pending for more than 60 days. 

“I am calling for a sprint – a focused, concerted effort in all offices beginning today and lasting through the end of May – to address this growing backlog of pending retirement and survivor claims in our field offices and Workload Support Units,” Stephen Evangelista, deputy commissioner for operations, wrote in the email.

“I am calling for all offices to do their very best to increase their [Retirement, Survivors, Health Insurance] clearances by at least 10 percent daily through the end of May,” Evangelista wrote. …

HuffPost asked the Social Security press office if, in light of the retirement claims backlog and the request for SSA employees to work harder, laying off those employees might have been a mistake. The agency did not immediately respond. …

The Undead Problem

From CNN Politics: 

Spurred by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, the Social Security Administration is combing through its databases to check whether beneficiaries are alive or dead. It has already added dates of death to millions of people’s records, focusing on those who are implausibly old. The problem: Some people who have recently been declared dead are actually alive, forcing them to go to Social Security offices to be “resurrected” and stop the financial havoc that such a mistake can have on their lives. …   

Some managers received an email to remind their staff that “death correction cases” should be addressed that same day and don’t need to have appointments, unlike most people who need help. The agency also sent an email about dates of death being posted to 3.5 million records, with guidance on whom to report erroneous death listings. … 

Also showing up at Social Security offices are immigrants who are correcting their records after having been declared dead by the Department of Homeland Security, several employees told CNN. DHS requested that Social Security enter more than 6,000 names of immigrants into its database used to track dead people in hopes that they’ll leave the US, CNN reported last month. ....

Gotta Eliminate That Waste, Fraud And Abuse

     From the Washington Post:

... The $1 spending limit on government-issued credit cards has also caused chaos at several other agencies since February, when DOGE began enforcing it. A Feb. 26 executive order imposing a “freeze” on these cards, with exceptions for “critical services,” cast the measure as an effort to ensure that “employees are accountable to the American public.”

Within parts of the Social Security Administration, the spending limit has for months left staffers unable to pay for phone bills, foreign-language interpreters and basic office supplies, according to several employees and records reviewed by The Post. That’s because less than a dozen people are responsible for approving most new purchases made by 1,300 offices.

One employee in an Indiana field office said that basic office supplies are running low, and managers have instructed staffers to ration paper and to avoid printing unless necessary. Some staffers have begun buying their own pens, but toner cartridges, at $200, are too expensive, the employee said.

In an email, a Social Security spokesperson said that the agency “is committed to operating with the highest level of financial control and efficiency.”

“We have a process in place to review all spending and eliminate wasteful or duplicative expenditures,” the spokesperson added. “It is critical that we protect taxpayer dollars so that we can effectively serve all those who depend on us.” ...

Delusional?

      From The Hill:

The new head of the agency responsible for administering Social Security and Medicare said Sunday he plans to make sure the agency survives well into the 2100s.

In a Sunday interview, Social Security Administration Commissioner Frank Bisignano said the Trump administration and lawmakers plan to make major changes focused on cutting waste and fraud with the goal of keeping the trust funds behind Social Security and Medicare solvent. …

     There are at least three ways of looking at this. Maybe he really thinks he can “save” Social Security by cutting “waste, fraud and abuse.” That would  simply be delusional. There are no significant savings available. Any minor savings would require upfront funding which is out of the question and would be completely inadequate anyway. Still, I think the theory that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about is most likely.  A second possibility is that he plans to cut benefits in some way inconsistent with the law. That would have to be a huge illegal cut and extremely controversial, probably suicidally so. I’m not even entertaining the possibility that he thinks he’ll steer cuts in Social Security through Congress. The third possibility is that he’s simply spouting bull. Maybe, but Bisignano comes from the reality based world so I doubt that.

ALJs Available Dropping Rapidly

 

From Social Security. Click on image to view full size

Mass Layoffs Enjoined At Social Security

      A federal judge in California has enjoined the Trump Administration from mass layoffs and program closures at a couple dozen federal agencies including the Social Security Administration. The extent to which this may affect Social Security is unclear. Were mass layoffs in the cards anyway?

Most Popular Names For Babies In 2024

     From Social Security, the most popular names for boys and girls from 2024:

Boys	Girls
1. Liam	1. Olivia
2. Noah	2. Emma
3. Oliver	3. Amelia
4. Theodore	4. Charlotte
5. James	5. Mia
6. Henry	6. Sophia
7. Mateo	7. Isabella
8. Elijah	8. Evelyn
9. Lucas	9. Ava
10. William	10. Sofia