[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 11] [Extensions of Remarks] [Page 14882] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]THE INTRODUCTION OF THE TIMELY DUE PROCESS FOR THE DISABLED ACT ______ HON. KATHY CASTOR of florida in the house of representatives Monday, July 14, 2008 Ms. CASTOR. Madam Speaker, today I rise to begin to address an overwhelming problem currently faced by far too many of our most vulnerable neighbors by introducing the Timely Due Process for the Disabled Act. Every year, thousands of Americans lose the ability to work due to illness or injury. But as paychecks stop coming in, bills do not. For many of these people, the only thing that can prevent them from having to share their time between medical treatment and phone calls from collection agencies and attempts to avoid foreclosure is Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). But, today, the system of enrolling in SSDI is broken. The average wait for an Administrative Law Judge hearing to contest a faulty disability determination has climbed in the past 8 years from an already outrageous 275 days to 481 days, with 28% of claims taking over 600 days to receive a hearing. This figure does not even include the initial determination, and reconsideration phases, which together push the average wait time for an Appeals Hearing case to well over 2 years. One of my constituents called my office in Tampa, frantic that his home was in foreclosure proceedings, and though he knew he was eligible for Disability, he simply had not been given a hearing. Facing the prospect of homelessness with a young daughter, he still was not able to break through the crushing bureaucracy that has taken over the Disability appeals process. One woman I worked with had had multiple surgeries due to debilitating problems with her spine. She was in excruciating pain, and was completely unable to work, but was denied disability payments. The Social Security Administration eventually conceded that she was, in fact, eligible for disability payments. But before that happened, she had to endure three long years of financial uncertainty, near bankruptcy, and the near repossession of her home. Another constituent of mine was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. She started to have balance problems. At one point she lost her balance and was injured in a bad fall. Still, she was denied disability. Her husband had to come out of retirement to take a part-time job in order to avoid financial ruin while they waited, and waited, and waited for their appeals hearing. Finally, the Social Security Administration came back and said that yes, she should have been receiving payments for years. A system that leaves our neighbors in limbo while their financial problems continue to mount is not a system that is working. The Timely Due Process for the Disabled Act will begin to move us in the right direction by setting a standard of treatment for disability patients. It instructs the Social Security Administration to, within 5 days of receiving an appeal, set a date for a hearing. After a 60-day time period for claimants to prepare and gather evidence, the hearing must be held within 15 days. A final determination will be required in another 15 days. These benchmarks are ambitious, but they are not out of line with timeliness requirements in other agencies. The Timely Due Process for the Disabled Act will also allow a more complete picture of the magnitude of the problems inherent in the system. It requires local offices to share more data about the first phase of the appeals process, the reconsideration phase. While SSA already reports data about the initial claims phase, the Administrative Law Judge hearing phase, and the appeals council, which is the last level of appeals, there is far less data available about the reconsideration phase that takes place at the State disability offices. This is the first level of appeal, and in many cases, is a formality where the same office that denied the claim looks at the same material again, eating up an additional average of about 2 months time. This bill will give a clearer idea of how long these reconsiderations are taking, and how we can speed them up. Ultimately, the way we treat people with disabilities reflects the values we have as a nation. Over the past 8 years, that treatment has gone from bad to worse, leaving thousands of Americans who need help to struggle on without it. I urge my colleagues to support the Timely Due Process for the Disabled Act and begin to place a priority on doing right by our neighbors who need us the most. ____________________