To the Clients of BurnettDriskill, Attorneys

It is our privilege to represent persons seeking disability benefits before the Social Security Administration because of disabling medical conditions.

Many articles are published about changes in the Social Security Administration (SSA) – including reduction in SSA staff and changes is procedures.

BurnettDriskill, Attorneys are supporters of and members of a national organization representing disability attorneys who practice before the SSA — the National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives (NOSSCR).

We received a message from the NOSSCR Chief Executive Officer David Camp on February 26,  2025. We share part of the letter with you. It is our opinion this letter is the best analysis of the SSA situation.

A Message From CEO David Camp

As many of you already know, I know Acting Commissioner Lee Dudek and speak with him regularly. Many of the reports of staffing changes and DOGE access have been wildly inaccurate . . . including a media frenzy and politicians using SSA as a prop.

On Tuesday (February 25, 2025), I met with President Trump’s nominee Frank Bisignano. Mr. Bisignano is up for a full six-year term as Commissioner of Social Security, and our relationship will be of paramount importance for NOSSCR’s members. After a brief withdrawal for technical nomination reasons, his nomination was received in the Senate and referred to the Finance Committee on January 28th. A hearing has not yet been scheduled, but I expect it to occur in March.

I found him to be engaging, even inspiring, regarding the potential for customer service and modernization improvements at SSA. Mr. Bisignano has an earned reputation for turning around failing companies, and for managing very large teams. He pointed out that his current company moves more money each day than SSA pays in a year, and that he’s comfortable with large scale efficiency transitions, fraud prevention, and public accountability.

It’s clear that the SSA phone systems, initial and reconsideration backlogs, and antiquated processing of information will all be high priorities. He was interested in our proposals for the efficient processing of disability applications. AI will be a priority, while taking better advantage of the private sector’s capacity to innovate. Mr. Bisignano easily agrees that SSA must do a better job. Lastly, SSA’s management structure needs to be reworked to address current priorities and to avoid—for example—having the disability claim process handled by five different components that don’t collaborate.

SSA’s staffing and management structure has failed our claimant and beneficiary populations. Much of the media reporting lately has been inaccurate. We are looking ahead to improvements at our SSA.

It won’t all be smooth.

I can’t promise there won’t be big problems or pain caused by the current intrusion of politicians into what should be an independent agency.