By Mark J. Warshawsky

The Biden administration has a brewing Social Security
Administration (SSA) problem of its own making. After illegally firing
Commissioner Andrew Saul last July, who still had almost four years left in his
term of office, President Biden promoted political appointee SSA policy chief, Kilolo Kijakazi, as acting commissioner. The law
clearly lays out, however, that Ms. Kijakazi cannot remain in office for longer
than 210 days — early February — unless the president nominates someone else
for the position.

In the unlikely event that the president
nominates the inexperienced Ms. Kijakazi as the agency’s chief administrator,
she would have to step down from her acting position, and someone else — perhaps
a career civil servant like former Acting Commissioner Nancy Berryhill — would
have to take over. Alternatively, the president could nominate someone else,
perhaps an outsider — Nancy Altman, the political firebrand heading an advocacy
group? Or Jack Smalligan, the technical expert formerly with the Office of
Management and Budget? In this case, Ms. Kijakazi could remain in her acting
role. Either way, it is unlikely that the nomination would be acted upon by the
Senate anytime soon with so much budget and other critical business to transact
— to say nothing of a natural and appropriate opposition from the Republicans
in the Senate to even consider the nomination, given the administration’s prior
lawless behavior in the matter. This raises the question as to what qualified
person would step up and put themselves forward as a nominee for Social
Security Commissioner just to remain in limbo and become a political football.

This “hoisted by their own petard” situation shows up the current paralyzed state of affairs at SSA, and the lack of a long-term agenda there. Advocates, led by Jonathan Stein, are upset that the number of disability claims, particularly for Supplemental Security Income, has fallen during the pandemic and blame the closing of SSA field offices.[1] SSA employee unions, however, claim that reopening offices back to their usual chaotic crowding would be unsafe while Omicron rages, unless an appointment system were put in place, which advocates likely oppose. Ms. Kijakazi, who owes her position and the firing of Mr. Saul to both groups, is stuck in the middle, yet no one is considering creative policies to leverage third party assistance.

Meanwhile, longer-term issues languish. The complexity and outmoded nature of disability policies continues to tax the agency’s resources and the public’s understanding and support. Despite the expenditure of more than $300 million over several years to implement new databases and modern policies to adjudicate disability claims, no regulations have been proposed. Similarly, despite good research showing that the simplification of the current crazy maze of work incentives in Disability Insurance would encourage more disabled beneficiaries to try to work, no legislation is being considered, even at a time of low unemployment and labor shortages. Under Andrew Saul, the agency was devoting considerable effort to creating computer systems and communication methods to enable the public to conduct its business with SSA electronically, securely, over the computer or the phone, yet so much more can be and needs to be done in that area. And there is no proposed legislation to solve SSA’s governance problems.

The Social Security needs of the American public have been subverted by interest group politics and lack of leadership. The Biden Administration must do better than this.

[1] Alternative explanations for the decline in disability claims include the following, according to economic researchers: Expanded unemployment benefits and economic impact payments may have delayed the need for disability benefits. A shift to remote work may have enabled some with work limitations to remain employed. Finally, a disproportionate number of older and racial and ethnic individuals and individuals with pre-existing conditions died from COVID-19, potentially reducing the population at the margin of program application.

The post The sad situation at SSA appeared first on American Enterprise Institute – AEI.