[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 27 (Thursday, February 13, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E230]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 INTRODUCTION OF LEGISLATION PROVIDING IMPROVEMENTS TO SOCIAL SECURITY 
                                PROGRAM

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. ROBERT T. MATSUI

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 12, 2003

  Mr. MATSUI. Mr. Speaker, I pleased today to join with Congressman 
Clay Shaw, the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Social Security, to 
introduce legislation to make important improvements in the Social 
Security program. These improvements would better protect vulnerable 
beneficiaries who cannot manage their own benefits; expand access to 
professional representation for disability claimants; and reduce the 
vulnerability of the program to fraud and abuse. The bill is very 
similar to H.R. 4070, which was adopted unanimously in the House last 
year. Unfortunately, even though the bill later passed the Senate with 
some minor changes, the House did not take it up again before the 107th 
Congress adjourned.
  This bill was developed as a result of hearings our Subcommittee has 
held over the past several years, recommendations from the Social 
Security Administration and its Inspector General, and the concerns of 
beneficiaries and their representatives. It makes the following 
changes:
  Representative Payees: Some Social Security and Supplemental Security 
Income (SSI) beneficiaries are unable to handle their own benefits, 
because they are too young, too frail, or otherwise unable to manage 
their own funds. In such cases, SSA appoints a ``representative payee'' 
to manage their benefits. The payee can be a family member or other 
individual, or an organization. The bill makes improvements in the 
representative payee system to prevent misuse of beneficiary funds by 
payees, to increase oversight of payees, and to expand the ability of 
SSA to repay benefits which are misused by a payee.
  Attorney Fees: The bill extends SSA's fee-withholding system to 
attorneys who represent SSI claimants, so that they could be paid 
directly by SSA out of the past-due SSI benefits. In this way, more 
individuals would be able to gain access to professional representation 
in pursuing their claim. It also caps the user fee that SSA charges for 
processing attorney payments at $75.
  Program Protections: The bill increases penalties for misrepresenting 
facts relating to benefit eligibility; denies Social Security benefits 
to fugitive felons and those in violation of parole or probation; 
requires companies that offer for a fee services that SSA provides for 
free to say so in their solicitations; and makes other changes 
requested by the Office of Inspector General to prevent fraud and 
abuse.

  The bill also makes other miscellaneous, technical and conforming 
changes to the Social Security Act.
  I want to especially highlight the importance of the attorney-fee 
changes. Professional representation is a valuable--and indeed vital--
service. The disability determination process is complex. Claimants 
without professional legal representation appear to be far less likely 
to receive the benefits to which they are entitled. For example, among 
claimants represented by an attorney, 63.6 percent were awarded 
benefits at the hearing level in 2000. In contrast, only 40.1 percent 
of those without an attorney were awarded benefits.
  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. This system of 
direct-payment, which is only available to attorneys representing 
applicants for Social Security disability insurance benefits, helps to 
promote access to representation by assuring that attorneys receive 
payment for their services while protecting beneficiaries by capping 
allowed fees.
  The bill makes two important changes to the attorney fee system. 
First, it extends the direct-payment system to attorneys representing 
claimants for SSI. Without direct fee payment, SSI claimants are often 
unable to obtain needed legal representation, as there is no way for 
attorneys to be assured of payment for their services. Such claimants 
are often particularly in need of professional assistance, as they have 
no other sources of income to fall back on should their claim for 
disability be wrongly denied.
  Second, the bill caps the processing fee deducted from the attorney's 
payment at $75. Since the adoption of the processing fee in the Ticket 
to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999 (P.L. 106-170), our 
Subcommittee has conducted two hearings on the long delays involved in 
paying attorney fees. We have had some success in speeding up payment, 
but there remains much room for improvement. It is only fair to cap the 
processing fee if SSA cannot assure timely payment of fees. Hopefully, 
this cap, in combination with the other provisions of the bill, will 
also mitigate the loss of experienced representatives from the 
disability bar, who have been forced to close their practices as a 
result of delays in fee payments and the imposition of the processing 
fee.
  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 on the Work Incentives Improvement Act, the 
repeal of the retirement earnings test, and our ongoing efforts to 
protect the security and privacy of Social Security numbers. With this 
sort of collaboration, I am certain that we can pass this bill as well.

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