House Republicans told Social Security’s acting chief Wednesday to find a way to discipline and fire a number of “outlier” judges who approve nearly all the federal disability claims that rise to their level of review.
House oversight committee members rejected Acting Commissioner Carolyn W. Colvin’s assertion that she needs more money, saying instead that she needs to get a handle on a set of administrative law judges who “rubber stamp” more than 90 percent of the cases they see — a trend that led lawmakers to think too many people are gaming the system.
Ms. Colvin said the vast majority of the administration’s judges are hard-working and diligent, and that so-called outliers — four of them testified to the committee Tuesday — are becoming rare.
“We have had a problem. It’s getting better,” Ms. Colvin testified.
Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican and oversight panel chairman, said he wants to see proactive steps to discipline the judges. He released a staff report Tuesday that said Social Security’s judges allowed 1.3 million people to gain federal disability benefits at the lifetime cost of about $400 billion from 2005 to 2013, despite “red flags” raised when they’d previously been denied.
“The numbers speak for themselves,” Mr. Issa told Ms. Colvin on Wednesday.Read the rest of the story HERE.
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