ADVISORY
FROM THE COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS

Subcommittee on Social Security

Shaw Announces First in a Series of
Hearings on Social Security Disability Programs' Challenges and Opportunities

Congressman E. Clay Shaw, Jr., (R-FL), Chairman, Subcommittee on Social Security of the Committee on Ways and Means, today announced that the Subcommittee will hold the first in a series of hearings on Social Security disability programs' challenges and opportunities. This hearing will provide an overview of the challenges and opportunities facing Social Security disability programs provided by the Acting Commissioner of Social Security, the bipartisan Social Security Advisory Board, and representatives from the Social Security Administration (SSA) and State agency employee groups. The hearing will take place on Thursday, June 28, 2001, in room B-318 Rayburn House Office Building, beginning at 2:00 p.m.

In view of the limited time available to hear witnesses, oral testimony at this hearing will be from invited witnesses only. However, any individual or organization not scheduled for an oral appearance may submit a written statement for consideration by the Subcommittee and for inclusion in the printed record of the hearing.

BACKGROUND:

The SSA administers two disability programs, Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). Created in 1956 and financed out of payroll taxes, the SSDI program is an insurance program that provides disability benefits based on previous employment covered by Social Security. Today, almost 140 million Americans are insured for Social Security Disability Insurance and about 6.7 million workers and their families are receiving benefits from the SSDI program. The SSI program is a need-based program enacted in 1972, funded from general revenues of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Today there are nearly 5.3 million disabled and needy adults and children receiving SSI disability benefits.

Both of these programs have grown steadily. For fiscal year 2001, both the SSDI and SSI programs are expected to account for approximately $90 billion in Federal spending, or nearly 5 percent of the Federal budget. Also, nearly two-thirds of the agency's fiscal year 2001 $7.1 billion administrative budget will be devoted to disability programs. Moreover, due to the aging of the baby boomers, Social Security's actuaries project that between now and 2010, the number of SSDI beneficiaries will increase by nearly 50 percent and the number of SSI recipients will increase by 15 percent.

Like Old-Age and Survivors Insurance, Disability Insurance will face financial challenges in coming decades. According to the 2001 Annual Report of the Board of Trustees, beginning in 2008, the Disability Insurance Trust Fund is projected to run cash deficits and by 2026, the trust fund assets will be exhausted. Administering the safety net will also become more difficult due to the aging of SSA's own workforce. By the end of this decade, nearly half of all SSA employees are expected to leave the agency, largely due to retirements.

Previous hearings by this Subcommittee have highlighted the changing nature of disability (based on medical advances, new technologies, and improvement of support services), the changing demographics of individuals with disabilities (who are younger and increasingly diagnosed with mental impairments), and SSA's fragmented and complex disability determination process, that results in claimants' often waiting more than one year for final disability decisions. The U.S. General Accounting Office continues to identify making timely and accurate disability determinations along with developing comprehensive return-to-work strategies as major management challenges facing SSA.

Most recently, the bipartisan Social Security Advisory Board released reports to provide the new Administration and the Congress with a framework for considering the fundamental changes they believe need to be made to ensure disability programs are able to meet the challenges they are facing, including: unexplained inconsistencies in disability determination outcomes, changes in the disability determination process resulting from court decisions - not the Congress, the inability of SSA's administrative structure to handle today's increasingly complex and growing workloads, and the differences between Social Security's criteria for receiving disability benefits and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

In announcing the hearing, Chairman Shaw stated: "Given our nation's growing prosperity and remarkable advancements in technology and medicine, it's not surprising that Social Security's disability programs, created in the '50s and the '70s, should experience strains. Our challenge is to thoughtfully and carefully examine the challenges and opportunities faced by these essential safety net programs today to ensure they will meet the changing needs of individuals with disabilities and their families tomorrow."

FOCUS OF THE HEARING:

During the hearing, witnesses will provide their perspectives on the challenges and opportunities facing Social Security disability programs today.

DETAILS FOR SUBMISSION OF WRITTEN COMMENTS:

Any person or organization wishing to submit a written statement for the printed record of the hearing should submit six (6) single-spaced copies of their statement, along with an IBM compatible 3.5-inch diskette in WordPerfect or MS Word format, with their name, address, and hearing date noted on a label, by the close of business, Thursday, July 12, 2001, to Allison Giles, Chief of Staff, Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, 1102 Longworth House Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515. If those filing written statements wish to have their statements distributed to the press and interested public at the hearing, they may deliver 200 additional copies for this purpose to the Subcommittee on Social Security office, room B-316 Rayburn House Office Building, by close of business the day before the hearing.

FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS:

Each statement presented for printing to the Committee by a witness, any written statement or exhibit submitted for the printed record or any written comments in response to a request for written comments must conform to the guidelines listed below. Any statement or exhibit not in compliance with these guidelines will not be printed, but will be maintained in the Committee files for review and use by the Committee.

1. All statements and any accompanying exhibits for printing must be submitted on an IBM compatible 3.5-inch diskette in WordPerfect or MS Word format, typed in single space and may not exceed a total of 10 pages including attachments. Witnesses are advised that the Committee will rely on electronic submissions for printing the official hearing record.

2. Copies of whole documents submitted as exhibit material will not be accepted for printing. Instead, exhibit material should be referenced and quoted or paraphrased. All exhibit material not meeting these specifications will be maintained in the Committee files for review and use by the Committee.

3. A witness appearing at a public hearing, or submitting a statement for the record of a public hearing, or submitting written comments in response to a published request for comments by the Committee, must include on his statement or submission a list of all clients, persons, or organizations on whose behalf the witness appears.

4. A supplemental sheet must accompany each statement listing the name, company, address, telephone and fax numbers where the witness or the designated representative may be reached. This supplemental sheet will not be included in the printed record.

The above restrictions and limitations apply only to material being submitted for printing. Statements and exhibits or supplementary material submitted solely for distribution to the Members, the press, and the public during the course of a public hearing may be submitted in other forms.

Note: All Committee advisories and news releases are available on the World Wide Web at "http://waysandmeans.house.gov".

The Committee seeks to make its facilities accessible to persons with disabilities. If you are in need of special accommodations, please call 202-225-1721 or 202-226-3411 TTD/TTY in advance of the event (four business days notice is requested). Questions with regard to special accommodation needs in general (including availability of Committee materials in alternative formats) may be directed to the Committee as noted above.