Today’s unprecedented economic crisis is bringing into sharp focus Social Security’s role as the backbone of the country’s retirement security, as well as the irresponsibility of former President George W. Bush’s policies in regard to this critical program.
Bush’s anti-government ideology and commitment to putting the interests of his Wall Street contributors ahead of the retirement security of working families led him to propose privatizing Social Security in 2006. Thankfully, that idea was roundly rejected.
Less well known were Bush’s persistent efforts to undermine the Social Security Administration with White House policies aimed at eroding public confidence through misinformation and stifling the dedicated staff of the agency.
At the core of Bush’s approach was the appointment of high-level agency officials committed to his anti-Social Security strategy.
As a first order of business, the new administration should replace such officials with people committed to upholding the law and dedicated to the original vision for Social Security. This process should start with the office of commissioner.
Current Commissioner Michael J. Astrue was appointed in 2006 for a six-year term that began in February 2007. Out of respect for the country’s decisive vote last fall against the Bush policies and for restoring government to its rightful focus on the people’s interests instead of the monied interests, Commissioner Astrue should resign.
Any sense of decency should have led him to submit his resignation by this time. If he continues to try to hold onto his job, the Obama Administration should seek his ouster.
Part of the Bush legacy that Astrue has continued are personnel and labor relations policies that hobble agency staff and undermine SSA’s ability to fulfill its duty to the American public. For example, Commissioner Astrue has implemented a policy prohibiting SSA employees from advising SSA claimants regarding their benefit election options. Because benefit election options, such as month of election, impact the eventual amount of benefits received, this prohibition deprives SSA claimants of advice and information that is important to their claims.
Further, despite assurances at his congressional confirmation hearing that he would improve labor relations at SSA, Commissioner Astrue has cut off all communication with the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and the Association of Administrative Law Judges/ International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (AALJ/IFPTE), and refuses to recognize AFGE and the AALJ/IFPTE as the exclusive representatives of many bargaining unit employees at SSA. He refuses to meet and discuss important work-related issues with AFGE and the AALJ/IFPTE, adversely affecting sound labor relations and employee morale.
Commissioner Astrue has also disadvantaged unrepresented claimants in disability hearings by not providing sufficient staff to explain new electronic processes to them, such as their electronic disability file, and has contributed to the disability backlog by prematurely implementing electronic processes, such as the “iclaims” program, before they have been fully developed.
Commissioner Astrue created national hearing centers, apart from hearing offices, in circumvention of SSA’s obligations to the AALJ/IFPTE. This has resulted in one of the highest and costliest supervisory/managerial ratios in SSA. In establishing national hearing centers, where only video hearings can be conducted, Commissioner Astrue has deprived claimants of due process by unduly encouraging them to waive in-person hearings in favor of video hearings. Commissioner Astrue has also contributed to the backlog of disability cases by creating a work environment for SSA employees that is hostile to efficiency and effectiveness.
In this same vein, Commissioner Astrue’s hostile and destructive actions toward AFGE and the AALJ/IFPTE include his unilateral and vindictive decision to withdraw financial support from the annual AALJ Educational Conference and his decision to dismantle the Employee Activity Association. He also has understaffed field offices and teleservice centers, causing SSA’s former award-winning world-class 800 number telephone service to deteriorate to the degree that 20 percent of calls to it result in busy signals, and 50 percent of calls to field offices are not answered. On top of this, Commissioner Astrue closed seventeen SSA offices in 2007 – the most in any one year in SSA’s history.
Commissioner Astrue has allowed the Office of Labor Management Relations to create a hostile working environment for some 48,000 hardworking and dedicated SSA employees, and has not demonstrated a willingness to work with the employee representatives to provide outstanding service to the American public. Internal Equal Employment Opportunity complaints have risen since he took office. Furthermore, Commissioner Astrue has excessively used the Federal Career Intern Program to circumvent the federal Veterans Preference guidelines, which provide hiring and promotional opportunities for retired military workers. Compounding his lack of regard for SSA’s workforce, Commissioner Asture has subcontracted out core SSA responsibilities, compromising the integrity of important statutory and regulatory responsibilities, to the detriment of the American public.
Commissioner Astrue has demonstrated a callous disregard for the Social Security Act by encouraging undue haste in making judicial decisions in disability cases and discouraging quality, thereby adversely affecting the American taxpayer because each disability case is valued at $250,000. Moreover, he has eliminated proof of age and proof of citizenship, which will likely result in an increase of fraud and beneficiary overpayments. In addition, he has reduced the processing of integrity workloads, such as redeterminations and Continuing Disability Reviews. This has resulted in billions of dollars of overpayments.
For these reasons and for his neglect of duty in administering the Social Security Administration and its programs, the AFL-CIO urges immediate presidential action to remove Michael J. Astrue as commissioner of the Social Security Administration.