The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued a joint memo to federal workers about the steps that need to be taken in an effort of opening up federal agencies and allowing government employees to return to work. The memo, which can be found here, indicates that not everything will open all at once and that many decisions will rely upon guidelines from the federal government, but also guidelines set in place by state and local authorities. Below is information directly from the memo.
Now, in partnership with state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, and the private sector, the Federal government is actively planning to ramp back up government operations to the maximum extent possible, as local conditions warrant, consistent with the National guidelines for Opening Up America Again.
The National guidelines allow objective assessments of epidemiological status and overall preparedness by states to follow a phased approach for individuals and employers to resume normal activities. The guidelines incorporate gating criteria which must be met in a state or county (in addition to core preparedness responsibilities) before proceeding to the phased reopening process: 1) influenza-like illnesses and covid-like cases of illness must trend downward for 14 days; 2) documented COVID-19 cases and prevalence of positive tests must trend downward for 14 days (while not decreasing the overall number of tests); and, 3) local hospitals must have the capacity to treat all patients without crisis care and jurisdictions must have a robust healthcare worker testing program and plan in place.
A few takeaways from this memo as it relates to Social Security. It seems that all Social Security offices will not open up at the same time and even when they do there will be some restrictions regarding who, and how many people are allowed into an office at one time to comply with social distancing requirements. Many people show-up to a Social Security office unannounced looking for help on a matter. These people typically spend the better part of a day waiting until a Social Security employee can assist them cramped into waiting rooms with many other individuals. These practices need to end. We can expect new rules in place when Social Security does open up again, which could severely limit in-person service at Social Security offices, but these measures will be necessary to protect the public and to protect Social Security employees. Social Security should consider no longer offering walk-in service at local offices and only assist customers who have previously scheduled an appointment to attempt to limit the amount of traffic inside a Social Security office at one time.
