[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 139 (Tuesday, August 21, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5778-S5779]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 3869. Mr. CASEY (for himself and Ms. Murkowski) submitted an 
amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill H.R. 6157, making 
appropriations for the Department of Defense for the fiscal year ending 
September 30, 2019, and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on 
the table; as follows:

       At the appropriate place, insert the following:
       Sec. __. (a) None of the funds made available by this Act 
     or from any unobligated balances available from prior fiscal 
     years may be used by the Social Security Administration for 
     the purposes of reinstating reconsideration of an initial 
     disability determination by the Disability Determination 
     Services of Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Louisiana, Michigan, 
     Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, or 
     California (Los Angeles North and Los Angeles West Branches).
       (b)(1) Not later than 180 days after the date of the 
     enactment of this Act, the Commissioner of Social Security 
     shall submit to the applicable committees a detailed plan 
     to--
       (A) improve the reconsideration level of review for 
     disability determinations; and
       (B) decrease case processing time for initial disability 
     determinations and appeals.
       (2) For purposes of developing the plan described in 
     paragraph (1), the Commissioner of Social Security shall 
     include information and input from--
       (A) the Chairman of the Administrative Conference of the 
     United States;
       (B) disability advocates and stakeholders through a 
     National Disability Forum, as well as other outreach methods;
       (C) data collected from the 1997 Disability Redesign 
     Prototype model, including the elimination of the 
     reconsideration step of the administrative review process for 
     disability determinations in the 10 prototype States; and

[[Page S5779]]

       (D) scholarly experts as well as peer-reviewed disability 
     or administrative review studies published by academic or 
     non-profit research institutions.
       (3) For purposes of paragraph (1), the term ``applicable 
     committees'' means the Committee on Ways and Means of the 
     House of Representatives, the Committee on Appropriations of 
     the House of Representatives, the Committee on Appropriations 
     of the Senate, and the Committee on Finance of the Senate.
       (c) For purposes of this section, the term ``initial 
     disability determination'' means a determination made by a 
     State Disability Determination Services office in regards to 
     whether an individual is disabled for purposes of any 
     benefits under title II or XVI of the Social Security Act 
     based on such individual's status as disabled.
                                 ______