Late last year Social Security proposed a rule that would allow Administrative Appeals Judges (AAJ) to conduct Social Security disability hearings to supplement Administrative Law Judges (ALJs). On the surface it might not look like anything is wrong with this move, but after a closer look it doesn’t seem like this move would do any favors for disability claimants.
It is important to understand ALJs are independent from Social Security and rules call for an independent decision maker in disability hearings, but AAJs are Social Security employees and they don’t conduct hearings. The AAJs are in charge of reviewing ALJ decisions to determine if the ALJ followed applicable law. To make a move and all of a sudden have AAJs do hearings, where there could be a long learning curve, does not seem to make sense. One of the reasons cited for the decision is because of the hearing backlog, but that has been greatly reduced over the last year. The U.S. House Appropriations Committee also rejects the idea for multiple reasons. Below is part of the committee’s report on the Fiscal Year 2021 appropriations bill which addresses the move.
The Committee considers the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) ‘‘Hearings Held by Administrative Appeals Judges of the Appeals Council’’ (84 Fed. Reg. 70080, December 20, 2019) to be an unjustified erosion of due process for individuals who are appealing a denial of Social Security or SSI benefits. As part of a beneficiary’s right to an impartial appeal process, an on-the-record hearing, conducted by an impartial judge with decisional independence, must be conducted in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act to ensure due process, with-out agency interference, or political bias. Replacing this appeals step and the role of independent administrative law judges (ALJ)s with SSA employees, jeopardizes the independence of the process. In light of the harm that would be caused by this policy change, the Committee strongly urges SSA to immediately withdraw this proposed rule.
