Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 16, 1994 TAG: 9408160115
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
President Clinton borrowed FDR's pen to sign a law designed to shield the enduring but troubled agency from political manipulation. The law also will restrict benefits paid to substance abusers.
The House and Senate had voted unanimously for the legislation separating the $325 billion program from the Department of Health and Human Services.
With 64,000 employees and 1,300 field offices, the newly autonomous agency will be one of the largest in the federal government. More than 40 million elderly and disabled Americans receive Social Security benefits and 135 million pay into the fund.
Clinton signed the bill at a Rose Garden ceremony 59 years and one day after Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the historic legislation that created the agency.
``We are strengthening those things which Social Security ought to do and taking precautions to make sure it does not do things which it ought not to do,'' Clinton said.
The new law is intended to build public confidence in the Social Security Administration and fortify its leadership after two decades of upheaval and declining services.
Difficult years lie ahead as well. With the aging of the huge Baby Boom generation, the national retirement system is expected to run out of money by 2029 unless changes are made.
The agency has had 12 commissioners in the past 17 years and was leaderless for much of last year. It has undergone six reorganizations since 1975 and lost one-fifth of its staff during the 1980s even as an increasing number of people were seeking disability benefits.
Busy signals became common, as did long waits for help. Congressional investigators found that some workers lost their homes, went on welfare or even died while waiting for disability claims to be decided.
Meanwhile a wave of fraud and abuse allegations hit the agency as its disability rolls swelled with immigrants, drug addicts, alcoholics and disabled children. Some addicts were using their monthly checks to drink and drug themselves to death, investigators found.
The new law is intended to address the whole range of problems. Among its key provisions:
nDisability payments to an estimated 250,000 drug users and alcoholics will start going to responsible third parties, and benefits will be limited to three years. The crackdown is expected to reduce payments by $808 million over five years.
nPresidents will appoint commissioners to six-year terms and they won't be removable except on grounds of wrongdoing. In the past commissioners have been political appointees.
nThe Social Security agency will take its budget requests straight to Congress, rather than having to go through the Office of Management and Budget at the White House.
nA new seven-member, bipartisan advisory board will advise the commissioner and make policy recommendations to the president and Congress. The president will appoint three members, Congress four.
The unanimous votes in Congress belied liberal misgivings about the new restrictions on substance abusers, which take effect in six months. For those who have paid into Social Security, the three-year clock starts ticking when they enter treatment. For the rest, benefits run out after 36 months whether they've received treatment or not.
Clinton signed the bill with the same pen FDR used in 1935 at the birth of Social Security. The agency is scheduled to complete its formal detachment from HHS no later than next March 31.
Clinton credited Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, for recognizing 11 years ago that Social Security needed independence. He thanked him for his ``persistence and guidance.''
Moynihan returned the favor, saying Clinton's support for the bill was key to its unanimous passage. ``It could not have been done without you, sir,'' Moynihan told the president, who is finding Congress considerably less receptive to his health and crime initiatives.
by CNB