[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 71 (Friday, June 9, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E956-E957]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


  STATEMENT ON A BILL TO AMEND TITLE II OF THE SOCIAL SECURITY ACT TO 
    IMPROVE THE SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION'S PAYMENT SYSTEM FOR 
                      REPRESENTATION OF CLAIMANTS

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                         HON. ROBERT T. MATSUI

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                          Friday, June 9, 2000

  Mr. MATSUI. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased today to join with Congressman 
Clay Shaw, the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Social Security, to 
introduce legislation regarding fees owed to attorneys who represent 
Social Security disability claimants. This bill would require the 
Social Security Administration to pay the attorney fees it owes in a 
timely fashion or else grant those attorneys an exemption from the 
administrative assessment that SSA charges in exchange for handling 
such fees.
  Under current law, when an attorney successfully represents a Social 
Security disability claimant and that claimant is entitled to past-due 
benefits, SSA retains a portion of those past-due benefits in order to 
pay the attorney for the services he or she provided. Specifically, SSA 
withholds and certifies for direct payment to the claimant's attorney 
an amount equal to the lesser of 25 percent of the past-due benefits or 
the fee that SSA had previously authorized the attorney to charge his 
or her client. (Fees authorized by SSA may not exceed 25 percent of 
past-due benefits or $4,000, whichever is lower).
  As a result of the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Act of 1999 
(P.L. 106-170), SSA is now required to impose an administrative 
assessment of 6.3 percent on all such fee payments to attorneys. Some 
maintain that this 6.3 percent assessment is necessary to cover the 
costs that SSA incurs in withholding and processing fee payments to 
attorneys. If this is indeed the case and the 6.3 percent assessment is 
simply compensation for services rendered, then it is not unreasonable 
to expect

[[Page E957]]

that SSA will process fee payments to attorneys in a timely fashion.
  The legislation we are introducing today simply seeks to put that 
reasonable expectation into law. H.R. xxxx would prohibit the Social 
Security Administration from charging an attorney the 6.3 percent 
assessment unless the agency certifies his or her fee for payment 
within 30 days of the award of past-due benefits to his or her client. 
Without this common-sense legislation, SSA would be permitted to charge 
the 6.3 percent assessment without regard to how long the agency takes 
to process attorneys' fee payments.
  As necessary as this legislation may be, it is not all that is 
required of this and future Congresses. We in Congress must also remain 
vigilant and ensure that the new administrative assessment imposed by 
the Work Incentives Improvement Act does not deter attorneys from 
representing disability claimants. Given the complexities of the 
disability determination process, if claimants are unable to secure 
professional legal representation, the results could be disastrous.
  Claimants without professional legal representation appear to be far 
less likely to receive the benefits to which they are entitled. For 
example, in 1998, 57.6 percent of claimants represented by an attorney, 
but only 35.7 percent of those without one, were awarded benefits at 
the hearing level.
  As mandated by the Work Incentives Improvement Act, the General 
Accounting Office will examine the impact of this new administrative 
assessment upon claimants' access to legal representation. If the GAO 
finds that the assessment does impair claimants' access, I fully expect 
that, consistent with the conference agreement on the Work Incentives 
Improvement Act, Congress will revisit this issue once more.
  In closing, I look forward to working with Chairman Shaw on this 
piece of legislation in the same bipartisan manner that characterized 
our successful efforts last fall on the Work Incentives Improvement Act 
and again this spring on the repeal of the Social Security retirement 
earnings test. With this sort of collaboration, I am certain that we 
can pass this bill as well, thereby creating incentives for SSA to 
improve its procedures for making payments to attorneys and ensuring 
that disability claimants have qualified and reliable attorneys to whom 
they can turn for assistance.

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