[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6485 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 6485

To amend title II of the Social Security Act to provide that disability 
    determinations under such title on the basis of hearings by the 
   Commissioner of Social Security are made on a timely basis and to 
  require the Commissioner to establish a program for monitoring each 
       year the number of disability determinations which are in 
                            reconsideration.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 14, 2008

  Ms. Castor introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                      Committee on Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend title II of the Social Security Act to provide that disability 
    determinations under such title on the basis of hearings by the 
   Commissioner of Social Security are made on a timely basis and to 
  require the Commissioner to establish a program for monitoring each 
       year the number of disability determinations which are in 
                            reconsideration.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Timely Due Process for the Disabled 
Act of 2008''.

SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF TIME FRAMES TO ENSURE TIMELY DISABILITY 
              DETERMINATIONS.

    (a) In General.--Section 221(d) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 421(d)) is 
amended--
            (1) by inserting ``(1)'' after ``(d)''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
    ``(2) The Commissioner of Social Security shall ensure that--
            ``(A) the scheduling of the date for the hearing described 
        in paragraph (1) occurs before the end of the period of 5 
        business days after the date of the request for the hearing;
            ``(B) the date scheduled for the hearing is during the 
        period of 15 business days after the period of 60 business days 
        after the date of the request; and
            ``(C) any disability determination on the basis of the 
        hearing is issued before the end of the period of 15 business 
        days after the date on which the hearing is concluded.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--
            (1) In general.--The amendments made by this section shall 
        apply with respect to hearings under section 221(d) of the 
        Social Security Act commenced on or after the date of the 
        enactment of this Act.
            (2) Hearings requested prior to date of enactment.--In the 
        case of any hearing described in paragraph (1) which was 
        requested prior to the date of the enactment of this Act--
                    (A) the requirements of subparagraph (A) of section 
                221(d)(2) of such Act (as added by subsection (a)) 
                shall apply as if the date of the request for the 
                hearing is the date of the enactment of this Act; and
                    (B) the requirements of subparagraph (B) of such 
                section 221(d)(2) shall be treated as met if the date 
                scheduled for the hearing is during the period of 15 
                business days following the later of the last day of 
                the period of 60 business days referred to in such 
                subparagraph or the date of the enactment of this Act.

SEC. 3. MONITORING OF DISABILITY DETERMINATIONS IN RECONSIDERATION.

    Section 221 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 421) is amended 
by adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(n) The Commissioner of Social Security shall establish and 
maintain a program under which--
            ``(1) there is established a target number for disability 
        determinations under this section which are in reconsideration 
        at the end of each year, and
            ``(2) progress toward attaining that target is regularly 
        monitored and assessed during the year.''.
                                 <all>