A previous blog post reported that congressional Democrats are urging Social Security Commissioner Andrew Saul to withdraw a proposed rule that would allow Administrative Appeals Judges (AAJs) to conduct retirement and disability hearings in place of some Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) even though the AAJs do not have the same experience and qualifications as ALJs. The union that represents ALJs is no fan of the proposal either.
Melissa McIntosh, the president of the Association of Administrative Law Judges recently spoke out against the proposal in an interview with the Federal News Network. McIntosh said this is not a move to take lightly because Social Security is considering replacing independent ALJs with AAJs who are Social Security employees and who are subject to performance reviews by the agency.
“This is a very significant change. Right now, American citizens have the right to a full and fair hearing before an administrative law judge. That’s critical because we are independent. We do not get performance appraisals. We receive no bonuses. We cannot be influenced. The SSA has proposed to remove these hearings and give them to non ALJ Individuals who receive performance appraisals, can be manipulated and persuaded through that process, through bonuses. We think this is a very critical issue of due process for American citizens,” McIntosh said.
Social Security had indicated that this proposed rule would improve the backlog of disability cases that are waiting for hearings, but that does not seem to be backed-up by facts. Over the last year the backlog of disability cases has diminished by a significant amount, so the timing of the proposed rule has to raise questions.
“The only stated reason is that they want to expedite the process. And that’s just not a legitimate assertion, since we have eliminated the backlog. If you want to hire more people, you should be hiring administrative law judges to hear these decisions. And recently, in a Supreme Court case called Smith v. Berryhill. The Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, said that these disability hearings must be heard by administrative law judges,” McIntosh said.
To see the complete interview with McIntosh click here.
