[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 20]
[Senate]
[Pages 28152-28153]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        LABOR-HHS APPROPRIATIONS

  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I voted, yesterday, in favor of the Ensign 
amendment to deny credit toward Social Security benefits claimed in 
violation of the Social Security Act. This would deny benefits to 
people, including undocumented workers, who have, in the words of the 
act, ``willfully, knowingly, and with the intent to deceive used false 
Social Security numbers.''
  The Ensign amendment was more carefully focused on denying benefits 
based on illegal use of a fake Social Security number, unlike previous 
Ensign amendments which I did not support.
  Yesterday's Ensign amendment requires the Commissioner of Social 
Security to deny Social Security benefits for work performed by any 
individual using a Social Security account number which was not his, in 
violation of section 208 of the Social Security Act at 42 U.S.C. 408.
  The Ensign amendment was adopted yesterday by the Senate.

[[Page 28153]]

  This amendment differs from a previous amendment offered by Senator 
Ensign in the 109th Congress, which could have harmed senior citizens 
and other individuals who may have made an honest error.
  That amendment was rejected by the Senate.
  In July of 2007, Senator Ensign proposed an amendment to the College 
Cost Reduction Act which could have led to a highly unfair loss of 
benefits to naturalized citizens or others who are legally present. The 
provisions of that amendment would have posed great problems because it 
would have denied Social Security benefits to legally naturalized 
citizens, for instance, unless the Social Security Administration could 
affirmatively determine that the individual was legally authorized to 
work. This amendment would have placed an unmanageable burden on the 
Social Security Administration and seniors who have been legally 
present for decades, who could have unfairly lost their benefits.
  This amendment also failed in the Senate.
  Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, the Social Security Administration, SSA, is 
currently facing nothing short of a crisis when it comes to processing 
disability claims. Indeed, SSA Commissioner Michael Astrue has called 
this issue his agency's most pressing challenge. Currently, there are 
over 756,000 individuals who are waiting for a hearing to have their 
claims adjudicated, and the average wait time is a staggering 512 days. 
That is the longest amount of time in SSA's history. In contrast, in 
2001, disability applicants had to wait an average of 308 days for a 
hearing. While that was still far too long, individuals now have to 
wait 66 percent longer. Sadly, some people have died waiting for a 
hearing.
  To help the SSA process disability claims more quickly, I was proud 
that, yesterday, the Senate voted 88 to 6 to approve an amendment to 
the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and 
Related Agencies Appropriations Act that Senators Bingaman, Baucus, and 
I offered to increase funds dedicated to the agency's administrative 
costs by $150 million. We believe that this added funding will help the 
SSA reduce its disability backlog and enable individuals to access the 
benefits to which they are entitled and need for their basic living 
expenses. Because of the financial strains on applicants and their 
families, it is simply unconscionable to have individuals waiting for 
upwards of 2 years before they receive ruling on their disability 
claims. We can and must do better--it is our moral obligation.
  Although I strongly believe that providing the SSA with additional 
resources is warranted, I would like to thank the two managers of the 
Labor-HHS bill--Senators Harkin and Specter--for working so hard to 
increase funding for the SSA and for supporting our amendment. It is 
notable that the underlying bill they brought to the Senate floor would 
have provided $9.72 billion for the SSA in fiscal year 2008, an 
increase of $426.4 million over fiscal year 2007 and $125 million over 
President Bush's fiscal year 2008 budget.
  The fact is that we have underfunded the SSA for years and must begin 
to reverse this trend. Indeed, according to SSA data, one reason wait 
times for disability hearings have risen so precipitously is that 
between fiscal years 2001 and 2007, Congress provided on average $150 
million less than President Bush requested for the agency. At the same 
time, Congress gave SSA more work, including the responsibility to 
review Medicare beneficiaries' income and determine whether they should 
be charged higher premiums or if they are eligible for assistance to 
pay for premiums and fees in the Medicare prescription drug program. I 
would note that last year, Congress had to include an additional $36.6 
million in the fiscal year 2007 continuing resolution just to prevent 
the agency from furloughing each of its employees for 10 days, as well 
as close offices around the Nation.
  Finally, I would also like to thank the Senate for unanimously 
adopting a second amendment on Monday that I offered to require the 
Government Accountability Office, GAO, to evaluate the SSA's plan to 
both reduce the disability hearing backlog and improve disability 
benefits processing. Senators Harkin and Specter presciently asked for 
the SSA to produce this report when the Appropriations Committee 
approved the underlying Labor-HHS bill. Commissioner Astrue submitted 
his Agency's plan to Congress on September 13.
  I believe it would be extraordinarily useful for GAO to look at the 
SSA's plan and make recommendations to make it even more effective. The 
bottom line is that we know that it is crucial that we ensure that the 
plan to rectify problems of disability processing will be productive. 
While the SSA has been among our most efficient agencies, this GAO 
evaluation will help ensure that the plan put in place will best use 
the funds we are acting to provide.
  Mr. President, in closing, I hope that conferees will retain the two 
SSA administrative costs amendments the Senate adopted so resoundingly 
this week in the forthcoming Labor-HHS conference report, so that 
President Bush may sign them into law. This Nation's disabled deserve 
nothing less.

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