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Social Security’s Operational Funding Shortfalls Highlighted in Appropriations Hearing
Yesterday’s hearing by the House Appropriations Committee and the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee spotlighted the impact of current Social Security Administration funding levels on the agency’s customer service capabilities. In her remarks at the hearing, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) expressed concern that the potential lack of completion on next year’s appropriations bill could hamper the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) ability to “… adequately serve Americans who are duly entitled to receive Social Security.”
Rep. DeLauro cited delays in initial disability decisions as a significant problem related to staffing problems, quoting outgoing Commissioner Martin O’Malley’s report that “nearly 30,000 Americans died in 2023 while waiting for their disability decisions from the Social Security Administration,” she noted several states in which the wait times for initial decisions exceeded a year. She went on to discuss the SSA’s “customer service crisis,” attributing it to the historic growth in the agency’s workload compounded by staffing shortages.
Read Rep. DeLauro’s remarks in full here.