The Federal Managers Association has issued a statement criticizing funding for administrative expenses in the Social Security Administration provided by the House and Senate appropriations committees, saying they aren’t enough to reduce huge backlogs of disability cases.
FMA represents managers and supervisors in the SSA Office of Disability Adjudication and Review, and it called on Congress to restore funding for SSA to $10.1 billion as agreed to in an earlier congressional budget resolution, an amount it said would be adequate to reduce the claims backlog, not merely slow its growth.
The House provided $100 million over the President’s request for SSA admin expenses, and the Senate $125 million, but the amounts don’t provide enough to keep pace with a budget framework outlined by the pervious SSA commissioner extending through 2012, FMA stated.
That framework calls for $10.44 billion for 2008, needed to maintain efforts to improve service delivery, fiscal stewardship, and staffing.
FMA estimates the backlog in the Office of Disability and Review is over 745,000 cases, representing an increase of over 430,000 requests since fiscal 2000.
While the approved 2008 budgets for SSA are increases over fiscal 2007 levels, it will only be enough to replace about 1,000 of 4,000 employees lost over the past three years, FMA argues.