Articles from prior issues of The Advocate

May/June 2001

NADE Visits the Hill
by Martha Marshall, Legislative Chair

Again this year, in conjunction with the NADE MidYear Board meeting, the NADE President, President-elect and Legislative Committee Chair took advantage of the fact that we were meeting in Washington, DC and visited a number of Congressional offices.

Because Senators, Representatives and their staff are most responsive to their own constituents, we scheduled appointments with the individuals handling Social Security issues in the offices of our own Senators: John Edwards (N.C.), Trent Lott (MS; Thad Cochran (MS); Carl Levin (MI); and Debbie Stabenow (MI) and Representatives: David Price (NC); Chip Pickering (MS); and Mike Rogers (MI). We also met with Matt Weidenger, Majority Staff Director of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Resources, with Kim Hildred, Majority Staff Director of the House Ways and Means, Subcommittee on Social Security, and with the Chief Social Security Analyst for the Senate Finance Committee. Between these scheduled visits we made drop-in visits to the offices of other Representatives from Mississippi, North Carolina and Michigan. In anticipation of the possibility of another attempt by the Administrative Law Judges to establish an independent ALJ corps, we also reintroduced ourselves (and NADE) to Raymond Smietanka, Chief Counsel for the House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law.

While the majority of our meetings were with Congressional staffers, we met personally with Rep. Barney Frank who expressed his appreciation for our efforts on behalf of H. R. 344, his bill to eliminate the waiting period for Title II beneficiaries.

At each of the offices we visited, whether it was a scheduled or a drop in visit, we shared copies of the March/April Advocate and asked for their support of H. R. 344. On the Senate visits we also discussed the need to have a new Commissioner appointed as soon as possible and requested the opportunity to submit possible questions for his or her confirmation hearing. In all of our visits we discussed Prototype, the publication of the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for national rollout of the new disability process and the need to have adequate resources in place before the process is implemented nationwide. We stressed the fact that our members have a unique understanding of the Social Security and Supplemental Security Income disability programs, that we are the experts in the adjudication of these claims, and asked that they call on us as the Congress begins to address Social Security issues. We will continue to reinforce that message in future communications with those individuals we visited.