Office Closures Today Due To Security Threat

      I am hearing that many Social Security offices around the country were ordered evacuated today due to some unspecified security threat. I don’t recall ever hearing about anything as widespread as this.

     Does anyone know details on this?

Irony Is Dead

      A post by Social Security on “X”:

Today is Data Privacy Day! We are committed to protecting individual privacy and securing the personal information made available to us when you visit our website. Learn how we protect your personal information: ssa.gov/agency/privacy…

I Don’t Like The Sound Of This

      From  new entry in Social Security’s operating manual, POMS:

We created a new POMS section titled, "Addressing Anomalous Electronic Annual Wage Reporting Activity" in response to an increase in irregularities observed in electronic wage reporting. …

SSA may delay processing or decline to process anomalous wage reports. When anomalies are detected that, in SSA's judgement, warrant investigation, SSA will suspend processing some or all electronic reports from the submitter and contact the submitter to initiate an investigation. …

SSA may also refer a matter to OIG for possible investigation. Technicians should report suspected cases of fraud to OIG via Allegation Referral Intake System (ARIS). …

     This may be nothing but it looks to me like the start of a new immigration enforcement mechanism, trying to find employers of immigrants and harassing them. That’s better than what ICE is doing in Minneapolis but it still involves Social Security in immigration enforcement which is not its mission.  

     By the way, as someone steeped in administrative law, I’m noticing a complete lack of due process, which is the sort of thing that could quickly shut this down.  You just can’t harass employers and their employees like this badly without giving them an opportunity to be heard by a neutral adjudicator.

Senators Have Questions

      The Chairman and Ranking Democratic leader of the Senate Finance Committee are asking for answers from the Social Security Administration on the recent admissions from the agency on the improper sharing of confidential information outside Social Security, possibly including sharing with nongovernmental partisan entities.

     No hearing has been scheduled. A actual hearing might have to involve Bisignano and Republicans don’t want him facing live questions. 

Bisignano’s Other Job

 

    The New York Times has a piece on Frank Bisignano’s time as “CEO” of the Internal Revenue Service that touches a bit on Bisignano’s position at the Social Security Administration. There’s no such position as CEO of the IRS but he’s leading it anyway. Here’s a brief excerpt from the piece:

… He works at the I.R.S. roughly two days a week, commuting from his home in New Jersey to Washington in his private plane, according to five people familiar with his schedule.

“I run two large organizations,” Mr. Bisignano said. “I don’t divide my time. On any given day, for example at 11:15 today, I will have an S.S.A. call, and at 12:30 I will have an I.R.S. call. They’re just two big divisions I run.” …

     Two days a week at the IRS. How often is he present at his Social Security office? Probably not that much. I think we know which job he regards as his day job.

Not Much But Better Than Nothing

      From AARP:

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a major spending bill on Jan. 22 that would give the Social Security Administration (SSA) an additional $50 million for customer service for the remainder of fiscal year 2026, which runs through Sept. 30.

The bill now heads to the Senate. It must be approved by both houses of Congress and signed by President Donald Trump by Jan. 30 to avert another government shutdown. …

GAO Says Cuts In Telework Threaten Social Security

      From Government Executive: 

The Social Security Administration is at risk of “losing many staff in the near term” in part as a result of the decision to largely ban telework across government, the Government Accountability Office said in a new reportFriday. 

According to GAO, telework had already been in decline at SSA when President Trump returned to the White House and issued a presidential memorandum banning telework in most instances in the federal workplace.  … 

Among those survey respondents stating that they planned to leave in the next year, almost half indicated that their respective work units’ telework or remote work options influenced their intent to leave the organization,” GAO wrote. “SSA officials told us these staff were likely considering leaving for more work or remote work opportunities, citing employee exit survey results and anecdotal discussions with managers . . . As a result, SSA was at risk of skills gaps in key occupations.” …

Throughout the report, GAO describes efforts by SSA leadership to downplay the impact of telework on its recruitment and retention issues, only to be contradicted by interviews with frontline workers, who stressed the importance of the workplace flexibility. … 

This Affects Few Cases But It’s A Sign Of The Financial Strain At SSA

      From a recent update to Social Security’s POMS manual:

The DDS [Disability Determination Services] has always had jurisdiction for getting consultative examination on Railroad (RR) claims. Due to fiscal processing limitations, the Federal Disability Determination Division Chicago (FDDD) is no longer able to pay for MER requests for RRB Dual Eligibility (D/E) claims. As a result, we need to reach out to the local DDS via an assistance request for that DDS to request and pay for MER. When using our prior legacy system we only reached out to the local DDS to request and pay for CEs. This process and POMS update only applies to RRB D/E claims. The local DDS does not adjudicate the claim …

     Make DDS pay? They’re not exactly rolling in dough themselves. Where I am DDS is already struggling to come up with enough money to pay for medical development in cases over which it has jurisdiction.