Dear Acting Commissioner Kijakazi:
According to Section 231 of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-193), not later than May 30 of each year the Commissioner of Social Security “shall prepare and deliver a report annually to the President and the Congress" regarding the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program.
Between 1997 and 2009, the reports were received by Congress on or before May 30. During the Obama administration, the statutory deadline was then missed five of eight years. Since 2016, four reports have been issued, with only two having met the statutory deadline. The deadline was, however, met in 2019 and 2020. The longest delay in providing a report, relative to the statutory deadline, was in 2017 when the report was received on September 1.
Congress has yet to receive a 2021 report and, therefore, the Social Security Administration is not in compliance with Section 231 or P.L. 104-193, and the delay in providing the report is the longest in history.
This delay comes on the heels of the 2021 trustees reports for the Social Security and Medicare trust funds, which are to be issued annually no later than April 1 or each calendar year, being delivered with the longest delay in the history of the reports since 1995. Of concern, the delays follow the unnecessary politicization of the Social Security Administration (SSA) resulting from the President’s unlawful decision to remove the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner from leadership.
Social Security retirement and disability insurance beneficiaries, and beneficiaries of the SSI program administered by SSA deserve better, and Congress must receive timely, regular reports on the financial conditions of programs that SSA administers. Indeed, the Senate Finance Committee’s Subcommittee on Social Security, Pensions, and Family Policy held a hearing on September 9 of this year titled “Policy Options for Improving SSI" without the benefit of having a timely report on the SSI program.
Please identify by November 4 when SSA expects to issue the overdue Annual Report on the SSI program and reasons for this year’s inordinate delay.
Source: Ranking Member’s News
