[il-talk] Fwd: [leadership] SSDI Changes in Budget Deal

[Denise R Avant]

Denise R. Avant
President
National Federation of the Blind of Illinois
Live the life you want
Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Amy Peterson <Amy at equipforequality.org>
> Date: October 28, 2015 at 7:46:45 AM CDT
> To: Albert Anderson <wsvhgrad at sbcglobal.net>, "Alexander Brown (alexander at friedmanplace.org)" <alexander at friedmanplace.org>, "Amy Serpe (aserpe at transitchicago.com)" <aserpe at transitchicago.com>, "Andrew Webb (awebb2168 at gmail.com)" <awebb2168 at gmail.com>, "Andy Roy (andyr4350 at gmail.com)" <andyr4350 at gmail.com>, "Angela Geis (angelageis21 at gmail.com)" <angelageis21 at gmail.com>, Ann Brash <a5633brash at mindspring.com>, "Arthur and Lois Krause (scoreone8 at aol.com)" <scoreone8 at aol.com>, "bev51tbird at sbcglobal.net" <bev51tbird at sbcglobal.net>, "Bill Jurek (bill.jurek at att.net)" <bill.jurek at att.net>, "Brad Shorser (bshorser at comcast.net)" <bshorser at comcast.net>, Brett Shishkoff <b.shishkoff at gmail.com>, "Brian Johnson (johnsonvoices at sbcglobal.net)" <johnsonvoices at sbcglobal.net>, Brittany Stern <bstern at atg.state.il.us>, "Bryen Yunashko (hello at bryen.com)" <hello at bryen.com>, "Byron Lee (blee at horizons-blind.org)" <blee at horizons-blind.org>, "Camille Caffarelli (camille at horizons-blind.org)" <camille at horizons-blind.org>, "Carol Anderson [carol.anderson at chicagolighthouse.org]" <carol.anderson at chicagolighthouse.org>, "Cecilia Miranda (ceci60660 at gmail.com)" <ceci60660 at gmail.com>, Cecille Escartin <cecille at equipforequality.org>, "Chris Middleton (cnachristopherj at gmail.com)" <cnachristopherj at gmail.com>, "Christina Mullins (christina.mullins at cityofchicago.org)" <christina.mullins at cityofchicago.org>, "Dave Porter (info at comp-unique.com)" <info at comp-unique.com>, "David Meyer (datemeyer at sbcglobal.net)" <datemeyer at sbcglobal.net>, "Debra Scott (debra.scott at illinois.gov)" <debra.scott at illinois.gov>, "Delores Christ (Dee) (cchristdee at sbcglobal.net)" <cchristdee at sbcglobal.net>, "Denise Avant (davant1958 at gmail.com)" <davant1958 at gmail.com>, "Diane Costas (Dmcostas at cps.edu)" <Dmcostas at cps.edu>, "Doreen Bogus (dbogus at cityofchicago.org)" <dbogus at cityofchicago.org>, "Garland Clay Lonzo (garlandclaylonzo1000 at gmail.com)" <garlandclaylonzo1000 at gmail.com>, "Jae Pak (jaejin.pak at gmail.com)" <jaejin.pak at gmail.com>, Jake Mattinson <jmattinson at mwe.com>, "Jemal Powell (derek2872 at yahoo.com)" <derek2872 at yahoo.com>, "Jim Dickson (james.charles.dickson at gmail.com)" <james.charles.dickson at gmail.com>, "jnonato85 at yahoo.com" <jnonato85 at yahoo.com>, "Joan (davej652 at sbcglobal.net)" <davej652 at sbcglobal.net>, "Joe Albritton (jalbritton at cityofchicago.org)" <jalbritton at cityofchicago.org>, "Karyn Campbell (karyn1421 at gmail.com)" <karyn1421 at gmail.com>, "Kelly Pierce (kkellyp at gmail.com)" <kkellyp at gmail.com>, "Kerry Obrist (kerry_obrist at yahoo.com)" <kerry_obrist at yahoo.com>, "Luis Garcia (luisgee21 at gmail.com)" <luisgee21 at gmail.com>, "Marcia Trawinski (marfred106 at gmail.com)" <marfred106 at gmail.com>, "Maureen Heneghan (maureenheneghan at att.net)" <maureenheneghan at att.net>, "Maureen Reid [maureen.reid at chicagolighthouse.org]" <maureen.reid at chicagolighthouse.org>, "Melissa W (melissa.wittenberg at chicagolighthouse.org)" <melissa.wittenberg at chicagolighthouse.org>, "mmwhite8776 at comcast.net" <mmwhite8776 at comcast.net>, "Nicole Gleason (nicolekgleason at hotmail.com)" <nicolekgleason at hotmail.com>, "Pamela Berman (pamelacberman at gmail.com)" <pamelacberman at gmail.com>, "Patricia Rodriguez (patricia.rodriguez at chicagolighthouse.org)" <patricia.rodriguez at chicagolighthouse.org>, Patrick Keenan-Devlin <keenan.devlin at gmail.com>, "Patti S. Gregory-Chang (pattischang at gmail.com)" <pattischang at gmail.com>, "Paul Rink (rinkmaster at sbcglobal.net)" <rinkmaster at sbcglobal.net>, "Paul Scher (plscher at ameritech.net)" <plscher at ameritech.net>, "Peter Berg (pberg at uic.edu)" <pberg at uic.edu>, "ponytail2255 at aol.com" <ponytail2255 at aol.com>, "Ray Campbell (ray153056 at gmail.com)" <ray153056 at gmail.com>, "Robert Harris (harris.robert at epa.gov)" <harris.robert at epa.gov>, "Robert Kingett (kingettspeaks at gmail.com)" <kingettspeaks at gmail.com>, "Sharon Howerton (shrnhow at att.net)" <shrnhow at att.net>, "Shirley Eilken (shirleeilken at aol.com)" <shirleeilken at aol.com>, "Sid Firstman (sidfirstman at comcast.net)" <sidfirstman at comcast.net>, "Stephen Handschu (stephenhandschu at gmail.com)" <stephenhandschu at gmail.com>, "Sue Lamm (suzj1013 at sbcglobal.net)" <suzj1013 at sbcglobal.net>, "Terry Gorman (t.gorman at sbcglobal.net)" <t.gorman at sbcglobal.net>, "Tim Paul (tjpaul80 at hotmail.com)" <tjpaul80 at hotmail.com>, Vanessa Thomas <vthomas3159 at gmail.com>, "Vanessa Thomas (vanessathomas3159 at gmail.com)" <vanessathomas3159 at gmail.com>, "Victoria Ferrarini (victoriaferrarini at comcast.net)" <victoriaferrarini at comcast.net>
> Subject: FW: [leadership] SSDI Changes in Budget Deal
> 
> FYI
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ray Campbell [mailto:ray153056 at gmail.com] 
> Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2015 8:57 PM
> To: icb-l at acblists.org; 'Illinois Council of the Blind Board List'
> Subject: FW: [leadership] SSDI Changes in Budget Deal
> 
> Hi all:
> 
> Here's some information about what is being talked about regarding SSDI in Congress as they and the President try hammering out a 2 year budget deal.  Amy, please forward to your distribution list of folks with visual impairments.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> 
> Ray Campbell
> ray153056 at gmail.com
> Skype: ray650315
> Blog: farmers-boy.livejournal.com
> Twitter: @packerbackerray
> Facebook: www.facebook.com/packerbackerray
> 
> Support the Illinois Council of the Blind at our GoFundMe page: www.gofundme.com/icb2015.
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Eric Bridges via leadership [mailto:leadership at acblists.org] 
> Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2015 2:16 PM
> To: leadership at acblists.org
> Subject: [leadership] SSDI Changes in Budget Deal
> 
> 
> Below are some of the provisions in the Budget Act concerning SSDI. National Industries for the Blind (NIB) has lead the blind community in these discussions and we thank them for the following quick analysis along with accompanying legislative text. Also, beneath the text is a set of bullet points that I have received from both Republican and Democrat  Hill
> staffers. I have also included beneath the bullet points a   pretty
> comprehensive article laying out significant provisions in the budget bill including Social Security. It does not appear as though the sky is falling. 
> 
> 
> Eric . 
> 
> It is thought that there may be some negative impressions on persons living in group homes (restrictions in Sec. 831 on loop holes for double dipping on benefits). The language around tightenening approvals is more negative toward persons who have non-visible disabilities. The Benefit Offset Demonstration sounds like they will want to work around the compromise number the disability community  was working out, the same limit for trial work. That still yields a positive impact, and the results of this demonstration could be stronger than the BOND demonstration, which was testing at full SGA. It could show less induction, which is one of the push backs Republicans are giving around a full SGA offset. The allocation is also fixed, by making a 0.57% switch from Old Age Fund to the SSDI Trust Fund. So, that problem will be fixed.
> 
> 
> Subtitle B: Promoting Opportunity for Disability Beneficiaries
> 
> Sec. 821. Temporary reauthorization of disability insurance demonstration project authority.
> Reinstates the Social Security Administration's demonstration authority through December 31, 2021 and requires all projects using the authority to terminate on December 31, 2022.  
> 
> Sec. 822. Modification of demonstration project authority.
> Updates requirements for the Congressional review period, under which the Commissioner must notify Congress in advance of any experiment or demonstration project conducted under this authority.  Requires additional information to be sent to the Committee on Ways and Means and Committee on Finance prior to beginning.  The proposal must now include a description of objectives, expected annual and total costs, start date, and end date.
> Specifies that participation in demonstration projects is voluntary and requires informed consent. 
> 
> Sec. 823. Promoting opportunity demonstration project.
> Requires the Social Security Administration to test the effect on beneficiary earnings of changing how earnings are treated for purpose of ongoing benefit eligibility. Under the demonstration, the existing "cash cliff" would be replaced with a benefit offset, under which the DI benefit would be reduced by $1 for every $2 of earnings in excess of a threshold.
> The SSA could test multiple thresholds at or below the current level of earnings that constitute a trial work month ($780 in 2015).  Under the demonstration, there would be no trial work period and no extended period of eligibility, but beneficiaries could receive partial benefits if their earnings in a month exceeded the substantial gainful activity amount ($1,090 a month in 2015). In addition, the threshold amount could be adjusted upward to reflect an individual's itemized Impairment Related Work Expenses. Once an individual's benefit is fully offset, entitlement to benefits would end, but Medicare coverage would continue for 93 months.  
> 
> Sec. 824. Use of electronic payroll data to improve program administration Authorizes Social Security to obtain, with beneficiary consent, data on beneficiary earnings from payroll providers and other commercial sources of earnings data through a data exchange. Individuals for whom the SSA obtains earnings data from these sources would be exempt from the requirement to report their own earnings. The SSA would be required to publish regulations governing this process prior to implementation.  (Effective one year after
> enactment)
> 
> Sec. 825. Treatment of earnings derived from services.
> When a DI beneficiary works, the SSA must consider which month the income was earned in determining whether the individual's earnings exceed the Substantial Gainful Activity amount. The SSA would be permitted to streamline the process of evaluating a beneficiary's earnings by presuming that wages and salaries were earned when paid, unless information was available to the SSA that showed when the income was earned.  Beneficiaries would receive a notification when such presumption is made, and afforded an opportunity to provide additional wage information regarding when the services were performed.  (Effective upon enactment)
> 
> Sec. 826. Electronic reporting of earnings.
> Requires the SSA to permit DI beneficiaries to report their earnings via electronic means, including telephone and internet, similar to what is available to Supplemental Security Income recipients.  (Effective not later than September 30, 2017)
> 
> 
> Social Security Disability Insurance 
> .    Prevents the exhaustion of the Social Security disability insurance
> trust fund at the end of 2016 and a 20% cut that would have been otherwise applied to disability insurance. 
> .    Benefits will be able to be paid until 2022, when further action
> will be needed. 
> .    Reduces benefit by $1 for each $2 reported income. (Sec. 823, p. 58)
> .    Reallocates payroll tax revenue between the disability fund and main
> Social Security fund and various measures aimed at encouraging work and cracking down on fraud and abuse.
> .    Ends a "single decision maker" pilot program underway in 20 states
> that is being used to test the impact of allowing disability examiners to make disability determinations without a medical consultant's signature.
> (Sec. 832; p. 77) Must have a "qualified physician" or "qualified psychiatrist or psychologist".
> .    Provides automatic filing for spouse who is eligible for an old age
> insurance benefit to receive his/her wife/husband's disability insurance benefit for that month. 
> .    If beneficiary voluntarily suspends benefits, no retroactive
> benefits will be given.
> 
> Two-Year Budget Deal Would Boost Discretionary Spending $80 Billion By Paul M. Krawzak and Tamar Hallerman, CQ Roll Call Congressional leaders and the White House are wrapping up a two-year budget deal that will also be the vehicle to move a must-do debt limit increase and could be unveiled as soon as Monday night.
> The negotiated agreement would increase discretionary spending by $80 billion above sequester-level spending caps (PL 112-25), with the increase split evenly between defense and nondefense programs, according to two congressional aides familiar with the discussions. Sequester relief of $50 billion would be applied to fiscal 2016 and $30 billion for fiscal 2017.
> The deal also would include an additional $32 billion in Overseas Contingency Operations war account funding, split evenly between fiscal 2016 and fiscal 2017. That means spending would rise by $66 billion above the caps for fiscal 2016 and $46 billion above the caps for fiscal 2017.
> Some of the offsets are being drawn from other legislation, such as the House-passed 21st Century Cures medical research initiative (HR 6). Spectrum auctions also are being eyed.
> On Monday afternoon, the idea of selling off part of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve also was floated, an offset already included in the highway bill, and that drew the opposition of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a person with knowledge of the ongoing talks said. The GOP leader doesn't want to cannibalize that offset and others that are already contained in the highway bill (HR 22), which is a priority for McConnell.  However, negotiators plan to use additional sales from the oil reserve as offsets for the budget deal.
> A debt limit increase would be attached to the budget deal, giving Republicans the opportunity to sell the package as raising the debt limit in exchange for constraints on spending. Democrats will insist that it is a so-called clean debt limit increase that is attached to other legislation.
> Two aides said the government's borrowing authority increase would last through early 2017, likely March.
> Other components of the legislation include addressing a looming increase in Medicare Part B premiums for about a third of the program's beneficiaries and making legislative changes to extend the solvency of the Social Security disability insurance trust fund.
> Both Senate leaders said on the floor Monday afternoon that budget discussions are ongoing. Democratic Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he hopes for a result soon. "As I have been saying for years, it is past time that we do away with the harmful, draconian sequester cuts. We must also ensure that there are equal defense and non-defense increases," he said.
> McConnell, R-Ky., said that "as details come in, and especially if an agreement is reached, I intend to consult and discuss the details with colleagues."
> White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters the budget-debt ceiling deal is not yet completed. "Not everything has been agreed to, so that means nothing has been agreed to," he said. He urged Republicans to "continue" talking to Democrats.
> And Earnest signaled the White House continues to oppose increasing Pentagon spending via  the controversial war-funding account. Any long-term fiscal deal should increase military spending by raising defense and domestic spending caps, rather than inflating the OCO account, Earnest said. He dubbed congressional Republicans' support for doing so the "OCO loophole."
> Disability Insurance
> On the Social Security disability trust fund, Republicans and Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee have been working for months to reach an agreement on how to prevent the fund from becoming exhausted late next year.
> The budget deal would stave that off for seven years, partly through a short-term reallocation to the disability fund from the main Social Security trust fund, people with knowledge of the deal said. The fix also will include enhanced program integrity measures designed to ferret out waste, fraud and abuse in the system.
> The disability portion of the deal also includes new demonstration projects to test the viability of approaches to reduce the cost of the program and make it easier for recipients to find work, and it would comply with a rule adopted by the House earlier this year.
> In a cost-saving measure related to the Social Security disability package, the agreement would end a "single decision maker" pilot program underway in
> 20 states that is being used to test the impact of allowing disability examiners to make disability determinations without a medical consultant's signature. Citing Social Security inspector general studies, the Government Accountability Office said ending the program could save billions of dollars in the trust funds.
> Other offsets could include ending the yet-to be-enforced requirement in the health care law for large employers to automatically enroll their employees in a health care plan, which is also included in a House-passed reconciliation bill (HR 3762 ) and which the Congressional Budget Office estimated would save $7.9 billion over the next decade, a person familiar with the talks said.
> GOP and Democratic leaders and the White House have been negotiating a budget deal for weeks, but new momentum came for an agreement after a Republican Study Committee plan to raise the debt limit failed to get enough GOP support in the House last week and few other options appeared viable.
> Democrats' Position
> The news of a possible deal came as a trio of senior House Democrats circulated a "Dear Colleague" letter on Monday urging House leaders to negotiate a budget agreement that "adequately funds" defense and nondefense discretionary programs, while taking into account cuts to the latter that have incurred since 2010.
> "The impact of these cuts demonstrates why we must replace sequestration with a balanced approach that does not include further cuts to [nondefense discretionary] programs, which have already been cut to the bone," Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut,Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Adam Smith of Washington wrote in the letter.
> "Any sequestration relief must be equally balanced between NDD and defense programs, as strong investments in both are necessary to keep our country competitive, safe, and secure," they said.
> A Democratic aide said roughly 120 lawmakers have signed onto the letter, which will be sent to House leaders later Monday.
> Medicare Part B
> Democrats have been leading the push for Congress to provide relief to the millions of Medicare beneficiaries who are expected to face a premium spike next year.
> About 30 percent of enrollees in Medicare Part B, which provides coverage for doctors' visits and outpatient services, could see their premiums rise by 52 percent in 2016. That cohort is comprised of new Medicare enrollees, those who do not receive Social Security checks, higher-income beneficiaries and low-income seniors enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid who have their premiums paid by the states.
> The other 70 percent of Part B enrollees are protected by a "hold harmless"
> provision that prevents their premiums from rising more than their Social Security paychecks, thus freezing them at the 2015 level.
> House and Senate Democrats introduced legislation (S 2148, HR 3696) before the Columbus Day recess that would freeze premiums for all beneficiaries and limit other out-of-pocket costs, which could cost upwards of $10 billion.
> Given that GOP leaders are expected to insist on offsetting cuts, lawmakers may be more likely to settle on a partial fix that would limit how much premiums rise for the 30 percent not protected by the hold harmless.
> Unofficial estimates from advocates put the price tag of that approach around $7.5 billion, though the true cost will depend on the final premium rates that the Health and Human Services Department is expected to release in the coming days.
> Spectrum Sales
> Meanwhile, auctioning off spectrum, is possible, is considered one of the more politically palatable offsets available. The airwaves that can transmit information such as radio signals and wireless data are a free resource, but companies such as AT&T and Verizon will pay big dollars for the exclusive rights to the spectrum bands that can project data farther and more powerfully.
> The Federal Communications Commission has in the past made tens of billions of dollars from bids for spectrum previously used by federal agencies, making it a tantalizing option for lawmakers to tap once again. What's unclear is how much in revenue the sales actually could produce.
> Melissa Attias and Shawn Zeller contributed to this report.
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