Say Cuts Harm Service
Senators Ask More For Social Security

By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

A group of U.S. Senators has sent a letter to their ranking members urging them to rescind proposed funding cuts to next year's budget for the Social Security Administration.

Two members of the Senate Finance Committee - Sens. Olympia Snowe, a Republican from Maine, and Kent Conrad, a Democrat from North Dakota - drafted the request.

'Further Hurts Service'

The letter, signed by 54 Senators from both parties, warned that a proposed Fiscal Year 2007 budget cut of $54 million in SSA funding for administrative expenses would only worsen staffing shortages and related problems that have "seriously lessened the quality of service our constituents have come to rely on."

It was sent to Senate leaders William Frist (R-Tenn.) and Harry Reid (D-Nev.), and to Chairman Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and ranking member Robert Byrd (D-W. Va.) of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Echoing concerns expressed by the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents SSA workers, the Senators said they feared the SSA would have to make cutbacks in hiring, overtime and agency operations if the slashed budget went through.

$401M Below Request

The full Senate has yet to take up the Labor-HHS-Education 2007 Appropriations bill, which includes SSA funding. The committee's proposed allocation for SSA this fiscal year is $401 million less than what was requested, and $54 million less than what was provided for the agency in 2006.

The Snowe-Conrad letter stressed that SSA funding shortages in recent years have allowed the agency to replace departing staff members on a one-for-three basis.

The Senators said the reduced work force, when combined with increasing workloads relating to both the Medicare prescription drug program and the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Protection Act, has slowed processing times for disability claims and reduced the number of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) redeterminations.