In a political climate unlikely to throw it a 75th birthday party, the Social Security Administration has taken charge of its own festivities. Its website features a page dedicated to this anniversary year. Titled Social Security Celebrates 75 Years of Public Service, it features a history of the agency and stories from grateful recipients.
The Social Security disability benefits received by most disabled individuals are relatively modest. However, when those benefits are multiplied by millions of recipients each month, they constitute a major expenditure by the federal government.
On September 30, 2009, Michel Astrue, commissioner the of Social Security Administration, announced a decline in the number of pending Social Security hearings. This announcement marked the first decline of hearings since 1999. Unfortunately, Social Security still has 722,822 pending hearings. In 2009, to further reduce the amount of pending Social Security Hearings the SSA hired 147 Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) and plans to hire 226 more ALJs in 2010.
