Poor Budget Means Poor Performance

Some excerpts from the testimony of Richard Warsinskey, on behalf of the National Council of Social Security Management Associations and the Social Security Advocacy Group at last week's House Appropriations Committee hearing, with my comments bolded in brackets:

SSA is planning on replacing these losses of positions during the actual period of this Fiscal Year:

7 of 10 losses in Field Offices
1.2 to 1 losses in Teleservice Centers
2 for 5 losses in Payment Centers
1 of 2 losses in the Disability Determinations Services (DDSs) ...

For many years SSA has stated that it wants to improve the 800 Number services. The FY 2009 budget states that SSA plans to have a 10% busy rate for FY 2009 and an average of a 330-second answering time for a call [five and a half minutes to answer the phone on average on top of a 10% busy rate!] . ...

In FY 2006, the agency’s SSI accuracy rate with respect to overpayments was 92.1 percent with an error rate of 7.9 percent, which represented improper payments of $3.2 billion. This is a statistically significant difference from the FY 2005 error rate with respect to overpayments of 6.4%, which represented $2.5 billion in improper payments. SSA directly attributes this increase in the error rate to the reduction in the number of redeterminations conducted in FY 2006. [Lack of staff is leading to hundreds of millions of dollars of overpayments to claimants.]

Senate Budget Committee To Vote On Resolution Thursday

The Associated Press is reporting that the Senate Budget Committee will take up its version of the Concurrent Budget Resolution on Thursday. The "mark" or committee chairman's version of the resolution is scheduled for release on Wednesday.

Despondence And Anxiety Grow, But Social Security Central Offices Do Not Seem To Care

Some excerpts from the minutes of a January 17, 2008 conference call of the Executive Committee of the National Council of Social Security Management Associations (NCSSMA), an organization of Social Security management personnel:

The state of field offices was a hot topic of discussion. Conference call participants weighed in with comments about the impact our resource shortage is having on the Field Offices and the Teleservice Centers [TSC]. Field/TSC employee morale is at an all time low and the number of employees retiring is growing. Employees do not feel supported by the agency, and so are more prone to retire as soon as they can. Many have over 30 years of service but are at the end of their ropes because there is no hope in sight. ... Some of the regions expressed the concern that new hires seem to be targeted for urban offices with little done for suburban or rural offices. New managers are overwhelmed with the decreased staff and increased workloads. Managers are increasingly involved in processing direct service workloads and tabling traditional management activities as they have no other way to provide the public service. Rising expectations from area, regional and national components to clear work are unrelenting, with new reports, listings and additional workloads being piled on field office employees. The pain needs to be felt by other components including ADO [Area Director's Offices] and regional employees. There is a sense of doom – Field Offices are being left to wither without any assistance. ... With the usual dedication, employees have been very creative in their approaches to handling staffing losses with all pitching in across the board and doing the best they can. Maybe it is time that we quit trying to prove that we can do the same amount of work, or even more, with fewer resources. The despondency and anxiety in the field and TSCs continue to grow, but our staffing losses do not seem to concern Central Office.

Time Crunch?

On January 29 Michael Astrue sent a letter to Congress indicating that he was suspending regulatory proceedings on the proposal for major procedural changes at Social Security. Those changes would have required all evidence to be submitted at least five days before a hearing, would have eliminated reopening of Administrative Law Judge decisions on account of new and material evidence and would have made all remands for closed periods only. Astrue said in the letter that he would have a new notice placed in the Federal Register asking public comment on some questions related to the proposal and that his agency would then publish a new proposal in the Federal Register.

If Michael Astrue wants to get some new procedural regulations, his agency is going to have to work fast. He cannot publish much of anything in the Federal Register without approval of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) which is part of the White House. That takes time. I think this request for comments would require OMB approval, although I am not certain of that. He has not submitted the request for comments to OMB. Probably, he will have to allow 60 days for comments once he does. After that, his agency has to draft new proposed regulations and submit them to OMB for approval. Those proposed regulations must be published in the Federal Register with sixty days for comments. The comments must be reviewed and the agency must finalize the regulations and get OMB approval before publishing final regulations. All of this takes time.

The question is whether this can be accomplished before time runs out. When will time run out? It will certainly run out on inauguration day if a Democrat is elected President this November. It may run out even if John McCain is elected President. It may run out as soon as election day, since most agencies prefer not to adopt new regulations of any consequence in the interregnum between a new President being elected and taking office. In fact, time may run out as early as Labor Day, since after that the Presidential campaign is in full swing, agencies typically do not want to do anything controversial. Even if Astrue wants to push this through, he will have to deal with the fact that OMB will start running down by early this fall, as political appointees leave their jobs and everyone become distracted by the upcoming transition.

Is it already too late for Astrue to do something with this before it gets swamped by the election and its aftermath? Probably not, but he would have to move fast and there is no sign of rapid movement.

Bristol Office To Stay Open

From a press release issued by Congressman John Larson:

Connecticut Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Joe Lieberman (ID-CT) and Congressman John B. Larson (CT-01) are thrilled to announce that the Social Security Administration (SSA) has decided to keep the Bristol field office open for at least another year. The SSA had threatened to close the office last year, sending thousands of local seniors to New Britain for their Social Security needs. During the year, the SSA will continue to review the need for the Bristol office.

The Social Security Administration cited in letters to the Congressional delegation today, that adequate funding for 2008 is one of the key reasons they will keep the office open. The entire delegation fought to increase funding for the SSA in appropriations legislation so that it could better serve the people of Connecticut and the entire country.

Budget Markup Coming Tomorrow

The House Budget Committee will be marking up its version of the concurrent budget resolution for fiscal year 2009, which begins on October 1, 2008, on March 5. The concurrent budget resolution does not give any agency any money. The appropriations bills do that. The budget resolution sets general guidelines for the appropriations process. A markup session is an opportunity for committee members to propose changes in the budget resolution, but that begs the question of what the Budget Committee will use as a starting point. We can expect to see a "chairman's mark," a version of the budget resolution prepared by the House Budget Committee chairman, John Spratt, to use as a starting point for the markup session.

Mayors Want Investigation

From the Valley Independent of Pennsylvania:

A group of Mon Valley mayors has demanded an investigation into the decision to move the Social Security office from Charleroi to Rostraver Township.

In a letter to U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Johnstown, 11 mayors agree that relocation to WillowPointe Plaza, off Route 51, will create a "huge hardship" on senior citizens. ...

"As the political leaders of our communities, we are very concerned about GSA's decision to relocate the Mon Valley Social Security office to WillowPointe. This location is not accessible to our constituents," the letter stated.

Attorney Advisor Rules Adopted Without Change

The Social Security Administration published final rules for the program that allows some attorney advisors employed by the agency to issue fully favorable decisions after claimants request a hearing. Previously, the program had been operating under interim rules.