ACTION ALERT: Help Prevent Social Security Budget Cuts
The Senate and House Appropriations bills for fiscal year 2007 contain large cuts to the Social Security Administration budget. These cuts will increase delays in processing disability claims, increase waiting times for all services, and many even force the agency to close its doors for 10 days next year.
ACTION: Tell your members of Congress that these budget cuts will hurt people with disabilities who receive Social Security and SSI benefits, and that Congress should fully fund the President’s budget request for the Social Security Administration!
To call your Senators or Representative: Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask for the office of the Senator or Representative.
To email your Senators: Go to www.senate.gov, and select “Senators,” then your state, and then click on the web form links.
To email your Representative: Go to www.house.gov, select “Write your Representative” (the 4th link from the top in the left column), and follow the instructions provided.
A sample letter is below. Feel free to use all or part of it in composing your email.
For more information, please contact Alaine Perry, Director of Public Policy, at 301-495-4460.
Thank you for your advocacy!
Sample Letter to Member of Congress
Dear ______________________:
I am writing to express my concern about proposed cuts to the Social Security Administration (SSA) budget in the Fiscal Year 2007 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill. The current funding level in this bill is significantly below the level of the President’s request for FY 2007, which already is barely adequate to fund SSA’s increasing workload.
Cuts this large will hurt services for Social Security and SSI beneficiaries, including the elderly and persons with disabilities, because Social Security staff costs will have to be cut. Today, individuals filing for disability benefits already face long delays which can cause financial devastation for themselves and their families. The proposed cuts would make these delays even worse. The cuts would also hurt applicants and beneficiaries who need to make calls to the 800 number, resolve problems with missing or inaccurate benefit checks, or conduct other necessary business with SSA.
[OPTIONAL: If you or a family member is applying for or receiving Social Security or SSI benefits, explain how you or the family member could be personally affected if services from the Social Security Administration become worse. Your personal experience is important!]
I strongly urge you to support restoring SSA’s funding to the full level of the President’s request.
Sincerely,
[Your Full Name]
[Your organization, if applicable]
[Full Address]
Additional Background Information:
People with disabilities have long complained about inadequate service from the Social Security Administration (SSA): lengthy delays in applying for disability benefits, poor administration of work incentive programs, and, of course, the ever-present long lines and wait times on the 800 number. Now these problems threaten to get even worse. The proposed funding for SSA’s administrative costs in the Fiscal Year 2007 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriation bills is even lower than the already inadequate figure proposed by the President. The current House bill would reduce SSA’s budget to $200 million below the President’s request; the Senate bill would reduce the funding even further, to $400 million below the President’s request.
The cuts in the Senate bill, in particular, would cause so much hardship that the Social Security Commissioner sent a letter to the Senate in July in which she stated that these reductions “will result in major service disruptions across all workloads” and would require “employee furloughs of approximately 10 days Agency-wide.” This would mean that the agency would close all of its offices around the country for those ten days and stop doing all work, including processing disability claims, making adjustments to checks, and answering the 800 number.