Budget and staff cuts – The real Social Security crisis
By STEVE KOFAHL
The first members of the huge Baby Boom gen-
eration are beginning to file applications for Social
Security retirement benefits. Those not old enough
to apply for retirement are in their disability-prone
years, and record numbers of them are seeking dis-
ability benefits. Unfortunately, impacted by these
growing workloads, the Social Security Administra-
tion (SSA) is being starved of funding and, thereby,
denied the front-line employees needed to provide
the quality service that American workers have paid
for and deserve. Applicants and taxpayers — present
and future — are being seriously harmed as pay-
ments are delayed.
SSA employees who retire are not being re-
placed, and the agency is on track to lose 6,000 posi-
tions in just the past two years.
Staffing will soon drop to its lowest level since
1972, in the face of rapidly-expanding workloads.
More field offices are being closed and hours of op-
eration are being reduced in others. Field representa-
tives responsible for community outreach have all
but disappeared, and the agency is steering benefit
applicants toward Internet self-service. Many older
and disabled individuals who attempt to file for ben-
efits online are disadvantaged, and even lose bene-
fits they are due because they do not understand
complex SSA rules.
More agency functions are being outsourced to
entities that are not held accountable.
The greatest hardships are suffered by applicants
for disability benefits. Almost two-thirds of initial
claims are denied, but almost two-thirds of those
who request a hearing before an administrative law
judge are ultimately approved.
Nationally, there are about 577,000 initial claims
pending, plus 746,000 hearing requests. About
84,000 of the hearing requests have been filed by
veterans. Hearing request backlogs have more than
doubled in the last seven years. An applicant ap-
proved for benefits after a hearing will have waited
about two years on average from the date of filing a
claim before finally receiving benefits, with 496 of
these days spent waiting for a hearing. This clearly
is unacceptable. Too many applicants lose their life
savings, their homes, and their families while they
wait. Some die before their claims are finally ap-
proved.
Service deterioration is not limited to the disabil-
JANUARY 18, 2008
ity programs run by SSA. It is getting much more
difficult to get through on the agency’s toll-free
number, and more than half of the callers to SSA
field offices get a busy signal.
Continuing disability reviews that save taxpayers
over $10 for every $1 invested have been cut back
severely, as have Supplemental Security Income eli-
gibility reviews, which save $7 for every $1 spent to
do them. This is penny-wise and pound foolish, and
harms taxpayers of all ages.
Social Security will collect $189 billion more
than it will pay out in benefits this year, and some of
the money collected will be used to fund program
administration, so why isn’t there enough money
available to properly run the programs? The reason
is that the agency’s annual administrative budget
must be authorized as part of the Labor-HHS-Edu-
cation-Independent Agencies spending bill.
SSA has been struggling to function under a
Continuing Resolution, which limits spending to the
levels that have been in place for each of the last two
fiscal years.
In late 2006, SSA Commissioner JoAnne Barn-
hart requested $10.44 billion from President Bush
for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, 2007, and asked
to serve another 6-year term. In January 2007, Bush
proposed to spend $9.597 billion for SSA in his
budget proposal, knowing that limiting spending to
that level would greatly accelerate service deteriora-
tion. And he nominated Michael Astrue as commis-
sioner to replace Barnhart. House and Senate budget
committees raised the amount for SSA to about
$10.1 billion last spring. The House Appropriations
Committee slashed the amount to $9.697 billion,
and Senate Appropriations to $9.872 billion, in late
summer. Before sending the Labor-HHS authoriza-
tion bill to the president, the Senate raised it to
$9.918 billion, and the bill passed the Senate easily.
The 435-member House passed it as well, and was
within two votes of the two-thirds majority needed
to override a veto. The president vetoed the bill, try-
ing to present himself as a born-again fiscal conser-
vative (domestic programs only), and he threatened
to veto all of the other domestic spending bills.
Congress largely acceded to his demands, cut
spending levels, added war funding with no strings
attached, and placed all 11 bills in an omnibus pack-
age. SSA was left with $ 9.747 billion, which is
$693 million less than what Barnhart said she
needed, and just $150 million more than what the
president proposed.
Though it is an improvement over the Continuing
Resolution, and the first year that Congress ex-
ceeded Bush’s budget request, it is woefully inade-
quate, and service will continue to decline. The pres-
ident is expected to sign the bill.
The American Federation of Government Em-
ployees (AFGE) and other organizations that care
about SSA are already lobbying for an adequate
SSA budget for next year. We have not yet heard
what Commissioner Astrue has requested, or what
Bush will propose in 2008, but we are not waiting.
Several senators from both political parties have al-
ready asked the White House Office of Management
and Budget to support $11 billion.
The American Customer Satisfaction Index re-
leased Dec. 17, 2007, reveals that SSA’s score has
fallen from 84 percent to 72 percent since 2000.
The man selected president that year has so far
failed to privatize Social Security, but he and the
Congresses since then have managed to cripple, dis-
mantle, and discredit the agency and its workforce.
Seniors, the disabled, survivors and dependents
of workers, taxpayers, and their children and chil-
dren deserve better. They should demand change
now, and in November.
(Editor’s Note: Steve Kofahl is president of the
American Federation of Government Employees Lo-
cal 3937. An affiliate of the AFL-CIO, the union rep-
resents Social Security Administration employees in
Oregon, Washington, Alaska and Idaho.)
Thanks to unions, ‘Presents
from Partners’ best ever
To the Editor:
This letter comes with deepest thanks for labor’s
compassionate support of the 2007 “Presents from
Partners” toy drive.
You joined hands with 30 other organizations in an
unprecedented outpouring of kindness and generosity
on behalf of kids in need. As a result, nearly 1,700 toys
were distributed to 574 underprivileged children this
past December. Those numbers exceed last year’s
record highs by nearly 40 percent!
In partnership with the Northwest Oregon Labor
Council and Saturn of Beaverton, we held our 11th
annual holiday toy distribution party at the Genesis
Community Fellowship in Northeast Portland on Dec.
20. Each of the 354 children in attendance received
three new toys, a picture with Santa, along with the
gift of recognition, delight and a positive memory to
last a lifetime — all because you cared.
Your generosity also helped distribute gifts to an
additional 220 children who are homeless or whose
families are among the working poor.
Children First for Oregon reports that 16.8 percent
of Oregon’s children lived in poverty in 2007. That
number is up 15 percent from 2006. While this obvi-
ously growing need is discouraging, it is uplifting to
see such an abundant, genuine display of care and
concern for those less fortunate. Your generosity
helped us provide more outreach than ever before.
On behalf of all the children and their families, my
heartfelt thanks and gratitude for making the 2007
“Presents from Partners” toy drive and distribution an
unparalleled success.
Glenn Shuck
Executive Director
Labor’s Community
Service Agency
Portland
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
Open
Forum
Don’t sell foreign
‘anything’ in
Bargain Counter
To the Editor:
I would assume you are a union
member in good standing with your lo-
cal. Here is the problem:
Why would the Labor Press print an
ad for a foreign “anything” in our union
paper? Remember, after Volkswagen
came into the United States in the ‘60s,
that was the start. Now Toyota holds
Number 2, ahead of Ford.
Whatever happened to the days
when you went into a Union Hall to a
meeting and you would never see a for-
eign car? It is shameful that a union
member drives a foreign car, or even
tries to sell one in the Labor Press.
Shame on them! And don’t tell me that
they were made in America.
Watch all the jobs go to other coun-
tries — thanks to the Bush machine.
Remember Ronald Regan? Look at the
history. I have seen it. Thank God for a
strong union to give me the benefits of
a good retirement.
William Felix Sr.
Iron Workers Local 29
Retired
Portland
Congress needs to
listen to the people
To the Editor:
I am retired with multiple sclerosis.
My day mostly consists of watching
CNN and C-SPAN.
I was once a Democratic Party chair,
in what is now commonly referred to
as “little Beirut.” I am very fond of a
signed Christmas card I received from
Republican U.S. Senator Mark Hat-
field. He was renowned for his ability
to do the right thing, notwithstanding
his party affiliation. Whatever hap-
pened to the time when people in Con-
gress did what the people wanted done,
as misguided as we may have been?
Of all the presidential candidates
running this year, Republican U.S. Sen-
ator John McCain seems the most vo-
ciferous about staying the course in
Iraq. I’m thinking that if the politicians
ignored us during Vietnam, then we
might still be waiting for McCain’s
bones to be returned.
Can’t we get back to the times when
Congress listened to us and/or were
sent home because they chased
women?
Wally Mehrens
UA Local 290
Retired
Clackamas
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