Paul Burkhalter, NOSSCR President

Are we there yet?

In the last 4 years, NOSSCR has been on quite a trip. Since moving to Washington, we have elevated ourselves from a sideline player to a leader in advocacy for our clients and their representatives. Our latest stop was last week when NOSSCR’s David Camp, Laura Beth Waller, and I met with the new Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano at SSA Headquarters in Woodlawn, Maryland. It was more than just a meet and greet; we discussed with the Commissioner working toward modernizing Social Security’s customer service and reducing claims processing times, while maintaining due process. We also highlighted the problems claimants experience in getting paid once found disabled by an ALJ after a federal court remand.

Along the road, NOSSCR as an organization has been evolving. We went from a sleepy organization in New Jersey to a powerhouse in our field in Washington, D.C. In the past 3 years, we have achieved an unprecedented two increases on the fee cap and other significant policy changes, like having the look-back period for past relevant work changed from 15 years to only 5 years. Also, spurious “other work” jobs like addresser, table sorter, and document preparer are now on the ropes. The evolution continues at NOSSCR with some ongoing changes on the horizon in how we organize our staffing.

David Camp, our current Chief Executive Officer, has been at the forefront of NOSSCR’s advocacy and lobbying efforts, and he will continue this necessary work for NOSSCR under a new title that allows him to serve other organizations who have policy goals aligned with ours. The goal is to allow David to focus on what he has done so well—pursuing NOSSCR regulatory and legislative goals and advancing and preserving the rights of those seeking Social Security Disability. In this new role, David will be freed from the tasks of day-to-day running of a professional organization and able to devote his full attention to advocacy at a time when we are watching for this administration to make some of the most significant policy changes in a generation.

Meanwhile—pending Board ratification—our Chief Strategy Officer, Laura Beth Waller, will continue to guide the day-to-day and events operations of NOSSCR under the title Interim Chief Executive Officer. Also, Jennifer Cronenberg will continue her excellent work as Chief Counsel for Legal Education & Disability Law, solving real-world problems for our members when things get caught in the gears of bureaucracy.

As we continue down the road, the Board will be taking steps in the next year to make sure we see upgrades in our membership managements systems, to complete the improvements in our accounting, and to guide more improvements in the day-to-day running of our organization. As always, we are guided by the principle of ensuring that the money you provide to NOSSCR through dues, registration fees, and donations is well and smartly spent. We are working hard to reduce costs and run things as efficiently as possible. Going down this road, we have burned a lot of fuel, but we are focused on refueling the tank.

To continue the road trip analogy, let me tell you about another stop NOSSCR made last week. After NOSSCR’s meeting with Commissioner Bisignano, David again met with the Commissioner as part of a coalition of advocacy groups, where improvements to the SSI program were discussed. David continues to engage daily with Social Security’s other executives—especially those running the new ODA component where our cases are processed. Our interests are well known to Social Security, and that will continue.

Next stop on the trip will be at our conference in San Diego in two weeks. Commissioner Bisignano will be addressing our group at the start of the conference on Tuesday morning, September 9. (Due to 9-11 memorial activities, this was the only time he was available to speak live). And, of course, David will be updating us about what looms down the road.

Enjoy the trip, enjoy the rest of your summer, and I hope to see you in San Diego.