Whistleblowers Recognized

       From Whistleblower Network News:

On July 30th, whistleblowers, whistleblower advocates, and government officials will gather on Capitol Hill for the U.S.’s annual National Whistleblower Day celebration. This year’s National Whistleblower Day marks the 248th anniversary of America’s first whistleblower law. …

This year’s featured speakers include:

• Sarah Carver & Jennifer Griffith: Former Social Security Administration paralegals who exposed a massive $550 million fraud scheme. Enduring severe retaliation, their bravery earned them the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners’ Sentinel Award in 2024. …

      These two are being recognized well after the fact for their work exposing the misdeeds of Eric Conn.

New Phone Priorities

      A notice addressed to Social Security advocates:

Expanded Support for Customers Seeking Survivor Benefits

Date: Tuesday, July 28, 2026

Dear Colleague,

We are pleased to share recent improvements we have made to better serve customers seeking Social Security survivor benefits.

To better support customers applying for survivor benefits during a difficult time, we have enhanced our National 800 Number call routing process. Callers reporting a death or seeking to apply for survivor benefits are now connected more quickly to employees trained to assist with these requests.

As part of this effort, we established a dedicated queue of trained agents to take and adjudicate survivor claims. We have enhanced support for this queue to improve our capacity and reduce delays. These changes help ensure that customers receive timely, specialized assistance while reducing wait times and minimizing the need for in-person office visits.

Since launching this dedicated queue last July, we have helped over 60,000 survivors without them needing to visit an office.

Looking ahead, we will continue refining our call routing and staffing strategies to further improve customer service.

Thank you for your continued partnership and support.

Sincerely,

Nick Perrine

Chief Communications Officer

       Great but it also means others wait longer. “Dedicated queue”? What’s that?

Laid Off By DOGE But Now Running For Congress

      From News From The States:

Democratic candidate Lauren Reinhold decided to run for Congress in Kansas after the Trump administration’s U.S. Department of Government Efficiency — better known as DOGE — eliminated her federal position. …

Reinhold and Colin McRoberts, both Lawrence attorneys, are challenging each other for the Democratic nomination in the state’s 1st Congressional District in the Aug. 4 primary. The Democratic nominee is likely to face an uphill battle against  Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Tracey Mann of Salina, who is seeking a fourth term in a district he has handily won since 2020.  …

Not All Those Offices Were Closed For Repairs Or Renovation

      From Government Executive:

 A group of Senate Democrats on Tuesday demanded information on how staffing shortages and reassignments are impacting the Social Security Administration’s ability to keep its 1,200 field offices open to the public.  

Last year, after years of chronic underfunding of SSA’s administrative functions already brought its workforce to a 50-year low, the Trump administration shaved the agency’s headcount by another 7,500 employees. According to OPM data, SSA had around 49,500 employees as of May. Bisignano has also reassigned more than 1,500 employees from the field offices and other subcomponents to man Social Security's 1-800 customer service line.

Earlier this year, Bisignano wrote in a private letter to Warren that he would “keep every field office open” and ensure they are “providing better and high-quality service.” But over the last several months, dozens of field offices have been listed at various points either closed entirely or only offered services via telephone. As of Monday afternoon, 16 field offices across the country provided no or limited services. 

In a letter to SSA Commissioner Frank Bisignano Tuesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and three other Democrats requested information on these temporary closures and the underlying reasons for each shuttering.

“Many of these offices were reportedly closed to the public due to maintenance needs or other operational issues—which may be a valid reason,” the lawmakers wrote. “But several offices appear to have been effectively closed due to staffing shortages, and some of these offices have allegedly remained ‘temporarily closed’ for an extended period of time.” …

“Conversational” Forms

      From Emergency Message EM-26029:

… On Saturday, July 25, 2026, Upload Documents will launch the first batch of forms utilizing a new conversational approach. With this method, form items will be presented as questions to the customer in a more easily understood, conversational style. Similar to previously introduced dynamic webforms, conversational forms will not necessarily ask questions in a linear sequence that mirrors the paper form. Instead, customer responses will determine which additional questions appear. All questions are pre-developed and presented in standardized language. As with dynamic forms, certain information fields will be required, and customers will not be able to submit forms unless all required fields are completed.

IMPORTANT: Although form questions will be presented in a new conversational manner, the resulting PDF generated after submission will be identical to the paper and fillable PDF versions of the form. Customers will be presented with a preview of the final PDF prior to submission to see how their responses to conversational form questions are reflected on the form, and to observe how form items corresponded to the conversational webform questions on screen. Customers will have the opportunity to edit any responses prior to submission. …

Can A Commission Save Social Security?

      From Howard Gleckman writing for Forbes about Congressional ideas for commissions to come up with plans to address Social Security’s long term funding problems:

… [T]he reality is, these sorts of bipartisan commissions only work when a president throws his full weight behind them and Congress really wants to fix a problem, rather than find an excuse to continue to do nothing. …

Nobody needs a panel of experts to develop ideas. We’ve known for decades how to fix the system. Congress instead needs to find the political will to act. …

The history of past commissions is clear, and depressing. My bookcase is filled with high-minded proposals made by expert panels, mostly to address budget deficits. Many included excellent suggestions. None went anywhere. …

     Who thinks there’s any will in Congress to actually do something about this now or any time soon?  Without that any commission plan is bound to fail.

Indefinite Suspension Of Advanced Leave

      I understand that Social Security has indefinitely suspended advanced leave. This is advanced leave, not advance leave. It’s leave granted in excess of what has already been earned that is to be made up later. Let’s say you have worked at the agency for a few years and are injured in a car wreck. You need to be out of work longer than the amount of sick and annual leave you’ve earned so far. I guess you now have to go on leave without pay rather than being advanced some leave to help you over a rough stretch. This directive doesn’t put some limit on advanced leave. It just summarily ends it. Of course, there was no negotiation with the employee unions over this. I’m sure they’ll sue.

You’re Chasing A Mirage

      From a press release from the House Ways and Means Committee:

Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08) delivered the following statement during debate in the U.S. House of Representatives on the Removing Barriers to Work for Disabled Americans Act (H.R. 8884): 

As prepared for delivery.

“I rise in support of H.R. 8884, the Removing Barriers to Work for Disabled Americans Act, introduced by our colleague from Georgia Representative Austin Scott. 

“Many Americans that are living with disabilities want to enter the workforce and seek gainful employment. In fact, an estimated 60 percent of Americans who receive benefits under the Social Security Disability Insurance program have stated a desire to return to work. And yet, less than 1 percent leave the DI program each year for a job. That is a gigantic gap between the number of disabled Americans who want to work and the number who successfully return to work.

“The Removing Barriers to Work for Disabled Americans Act seeks to shrink that gap by simply restoring the Social Security Administration’s authority to test drive solutions that can empower more of our fellow Americans to get back to work. Up until 2022, the SSA had such authority to run demonstration projects on improving work outcomes. With that authority expired and with so many disabled Americans still unable to successfully navigate the current program, we have to find a better way forward. 

     Sure, they want to return to work. They never wanted to be disabled to begin with. They have hazy ideas in their minds about getting better. The truth is that very, very few of them get better. The 12 month duration requirement to get disability benefits weeds out almost all of those who were going to get better. If you haven’t gotten better after 12 months, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll ever get better. You’ll probably get worse over time.

     Social Security ran return to work demonstration projects for decades. They were all dismal failures. It’s a waste of money. It’s chasing a mirage,