Home Media Center News Releases

Washington, D.C.—The head of the union representing employees who play important roles in the review of denied Social Security disability claims has called on key senators to lead efforts to restore proposed substantial funding cuts in the fiscal 2007 budget for the Social Security Administration (SSA).

In a letter to the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and its Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Subcommittee, President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) said “it cannot be overstated how counterproductive” a cut of some $401 million in SSA funding would be.

“We are deeply concerned that unless SSA is funded at a higher amount than has been allocated by the Appropriations Committee,” Kelley said, “SSA will be forced to furlough its employees for ten days as well as make other harmful cutbacks in hiring, overtime and agency operations.” In testimony before Congress, Social Security Commissioner Jo Anne Barnhart has warned that furloughs are possible if the $401 million cut goes through.

The committee’s allocation for SSA for the new fiscal year which began Oct. 1 is not only $401 million less than the administration proposal, it is $54 million less than provided for the agency in fiscal 2006. The Labor-HHS-Education 2007 Appropriations bill, which includes appropriations for SSA, was approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee in July. The full Senate has yet to take up the measure.

NTEU represents SSA employees in its Office of Disability Adjudication and Review, which formerly was known as the Office of Hearings and Appeals.

In her letter, President Kelley said that “sending employees home for ten days without pay is not only unfair to (them), it denies Social Security beneficiaries service regarding earned benefits.”

The Appropriations Committee’s proposed funding also would mean that SSA would be forced to reduce sharply the number of ‘continuing disability reviews’ planned for the current fiscal year—from 597,000 to only 111,000. These reviews “save the trust fund $10 for every $1 spent in administering them,” Kelley said, “so the failure to properly fund the administrative expenses for this program actually costs the trust fund money.”

On a closely-related matter, the NTEU leader pointed out that SSA presently is seeking highly-qualified applicants to fill the new position of federal reviewing official; the hiring push is part of an effort by SSA to eliminate the huge backlog of disability appeals.

“Yet,” she said, “just as SSA is seeking highly-skilled individuals to move into these positions, it is being put in a position of having to impose unprecedented actions harmful to employees, such as furloughs.” It is no surprise, Kelley said, that SSA appears to be having difficulty recruiting for these positions.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing some 150,000 employees in 30 agencies and departments.