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Proposed Appeal Regulations
On January 29, 2008, Commissioner Astrue notified Congress that he has suspended the rulemaking process for two key aspects of the proposed regulations on appeals regarding submission of evidence: "the 5-day and closing the record on appeal proposals."

The Social Security Administration has proposed major changes in how disability claims are adjudicated during the hearings and appeals process. The comment deadline expired on December 28, 2007.

The general theme of these proposed regulations is moving the caseload more quickly by various ways of closing the record. At the ALJ level, the record closes five days prior to the hearing, with limited exceptions. The record closes after the hearing decision. It will be very difficult to submit new evidence to the Review Board (which replaces the Appeals Council). In addition, the proposed regulations artificially limit the period of disability under consideration in any remand proceedings. Finally, they also would prohibit most reopenings of prior applications.

While we support the new 75-day notice provision and the continuation of a claimant-accessible administrative appellate Review Board, our view is that most of these proposed changes are designed to elevate speed of adjudication over accuracy of the decisions and fairness of the process. Note that the proposed rule assumes that fewer claims would be allowed, claiming a more than $1.5 billion reduction in benefit payments over the next ten years. From our perspective as advocates for claimants with disabilities, this is completely unacceptable. It is simply unsupportable to create a system to deny benefits to disabled claimants simply because they have gotten tangled in procedural traps.

We urge you to review the documents we have posted here. Although the comment period has ended and the agency can choose to implement these proposed changes with no amendments to the statute, Congressmen and Senators welcome your comments about proposed rules. This helps them better understand what the agency intends to do, and what the impact on disability claimants would be.