Statement of Administration Policy: H.R. 4277 - Social Security Administrative Reform Act of 1994

(House)
(Rep. Jacobs (D) IN and Ford (D) TN)

The Administration supports making the Social Security Administration (SSA) an independent agency and will work with the Conferees to address several concerns about H.R. 4277, including:

—    The governance of the agency by a three-member board whose structure is unwieldy and likely to undermine the legislation's intent to make SSA more effective.

—    The lack of budgetary and legislative policy authority afforded to the Executive branch.

—    The prescriptive nature of the bill in its designation of required officers, and the distribution of resources between the Department of Health and Human Services and SSA.

—    The diminution of the advisory and evaluation roles of the Treasury and Labor Departments in the Social Security program. By removing the Secretary of the Treasury as Chair of the Board of Trustees for the OASDI Trust Funds, H.R. 4277 would reduce Treasury's role in evaluating the financial status of the program. Similarly, by removing the Secretary of Labor as a member of that Board, H.R. 4277 would eliminate Labor's role of representing workers' and retirees' interests.

The Administration looks forward to working with the Conferees to address the above concerns and to create the most viable and efficient independent SSA possible.

The Administration supports strengthening policies that currently apply to Supplemental Security Income (SSI) beneficiaries who are drug addicts and alcoholics (DA&As) and extending those policies to title II disability beneficiaries. The Administration will work with the Conferees to address the following issues regarding DA&A provisions in H.R. 4277:

—    Clarification of beneficiaries to whom the policy applies.

—    Development of the most effective policy to address the dual goals of protecting expenditure of public funds, while administering programs for people with disabilities fairly and appropriately.

The Administration supports conducting Continuing Disability Reviews (CDRs) in the SSI program and will work with the Conferees to ensure that SSA will be able to conduct these CDRs in the most cost-effective and efficient manner possible.

H.R. 4277 would affect direct spending and receipts; therefore, it is subject to the pay-as-you-go requirement of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA) of 1990. OMB's preliminary scoring estimates of this bill are currently under development.