§ 904. Administrative duties of Commissioner

2,166 words·~10 min read·/usc/title-42/section-904

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(a)Personnel

(1)The Commissioner shall appoint such additional officers and employees as the Commissioner considers necessary to carry out the functions of the Administration under this chapter, and attorneys and experts may be appointed without regard to the civil service laws. Except as otherwise provided in the preceding sentence or in any other provision of law, such officers and employees shall be appointed, and their compensation shall be fixed, in accordance with title 5.

(2)The Commissioner may procure the services of experts and consultants in accordance with the provisions of section 3109 of title 5.

(3)Notwithstanding any requirements of section 3133 of title 5, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management shall authorize for the Administration a total number of Senior Executive Service positions which is substantially greater than the number of such positions authorized in the Social Security Administration in the Department of Health and Human Services as of immediately before August 15, 1994, to the extent that the greater number of such authorized positions is specified in the comprehensive work force plan as established and revised by the Commissioner under subsection (b)(2). The total number of such positions authorized for the Administration shall not at any time be less than the number of such authorized positions as of immediately before such date.

(b)Budgetary matters

(A)The Commissioner shall prepare an annual budget for the Administration, which shall be submitted by the President to the Congress without revision, together with the President’s annual budget for the Administration.

(B)The Commissioner shall include in the annual budget prepared pursuant to subparagraph

(A)an itemization of the amount of funds required by the Social Security Administration for the fiscal year covered by the budget to support efforts to combat fraud committed by applicants and beneficiaries.

(A)Appropriations requests for staffing and personnel of the Administration shall be based upon a comprehensive work force plan, which shall be established and revised from time to time by the Commissioner.

(B)Appropriations for administrative expenses of the Administration are authorized to be provided on a biennial basis.

(3)For each fiscal year beginning with 2016 and ending with 2021, the Commissioner shall include in the annual budget prepared pursuant to subparagraph

(A)a report describing the purposes for which amounts made available for purposes described in section 901(b)(2)(B) of title 2 for the fiscal year were expended by the Social Security Administration and the purposes for which the Commissioner plans for the Administration to expend such funds in the succeeding fiscal year, including—

(A)the total such amount expended;

(B)the amount expended on co-operative disability investigation units;

(C)the number of cases of fraud prevented by co-operative disability investigation units and the amount expended on such cases (as reported to the Commissioner by the Inspector General of the Social Security Administration);

(D)the number of felony cases prosecuted under section 408 of this title (as reported to the Commissioner by the Inspector General) and the amount expended by the Social Security Administration in supporting the prosecution of such cases;

(E)the amount of such felony cases successfully prosecuted (as reported to the Commissioner by the Inspector General) and the amount expended by the Social Security Administration in supporting the prosecution of such cases;

(F)the amount expended on and the number of completed—

(i)continuing disability reviews conducted by mail;

(ii)redeterminations conducted by mail;

(iii)medical continuing disability reviews conducted pursuant to section 421(i) of this title;

(iv)medical continuing disability reviews conducted pursuant to 1382c(a)(3)(H) 1 of this title;

(v)redeterminations conducted pursuant to section 1382(c) of this title; and

(vi)work-related continuing disability reviews to determine whether earnings derived from services demonstrate an individual’s ability to engage in substantial gainful activity;

(G)the number of cases of fraud identified for which benefits were terminated as a result of medical continuing disability reviews (as reported to the Commissioner by the Inspector General), work-related continuing disability reviews, and redeterminations, and the amount of resulting savings for each such type of review or redetermination; and

(H)the number of work-related continuing disability reviews in which a beneficiary improperly reported earnings derived from services for more than 3 consecutive months, and the amount of resulting savings.

(c)Employment restriction The total number of positions in the Administration (other than positions established under section 902 of this title) which—

(1)are held by noncareer appointees (within the meaning of section 3132(a)(7) of title 5) in the Senior Executive Service, or

(2)have been determined by the President or the Office of Personnel Management to be of a confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character and have been excepted from the competitive service thereby,

may not exceed at any time the equivalent of 20 full-time positions.

(d)Seal of office The Commissioner shall cause a seal of office to be made for the Administration of such design as the Commissioner shall approve. Judicial notice shall be taken of such seal.

(e)Data exchanges

(1)Notwithstanding any other provision of law (including subsections (b), (o), (p), (q), (r), and

(u)of section 552a of title 5—

(A)the Secretary shall disclose to the Commissioner any record or information requested in writing by the Commissioner for the purpose of administering any program administered by the Commissioner, if records or information of such type were disclosed to the Commissioner of Social Security in the Department of Health and Human Services under applicable rules, regulations, and procedures in effect before August 15, 1994; and

(B)the Commissioner shall disclose to the Secretary or to any State any record or information requested in writing by the Secretary to be so disclosed for the purpose of administering any program administered by the Secretary, if records or information of such type were so disclosed under applicable rules, regulations, and procedures in effect before August 15, 1994.

(2)The Commissioner and the Secretary shall enter into an agreement under which the Commissioner provides the Secretary data concerning the quality of the services and information provided to beneficiaries of the programs under subchapters XVIII and XIX and the administrative services provided by the Social Security Administration in support of such programs. Such agreement shall stipulate the type of data to be provided and the terms and conditions under which the data are to be provided.

(3)The Commissioner and the Secretary shall periodically review the need for exchanges of information not referred to in paragraph

(1)or

(2)and shall enter into such agreements as may be necessary and appropriate to provide information to each other or to States in order to meet the programmatic needs of the requesting agencies.

(A)Any disclosure from a system of records (as defined in section 552a(a)(5) of title 5) pursuant to this subsection shall be made as a routine use under subsection (b)(3) of section 552a of such title (unless otherwise authorized under such section 552a).

(B)Any computerized comparison of records, including matching programs, between the Commissioner and the Secretary shall be conducted in accordance with subsections (o), (p), (q), (r), and

(u)of section 552a of title 5.

(5)The Commissioner and the Secretary shall each ensure that timely action is taken to establish any necessary routine uses for disclosures required under paragraph

(1)or agreed to pursuant to paragraph (3).

(Aug. 14, 1935, ch. 531, title VII, § 704, 49 Stat. 636; Aug. 28, 1950, ch. 809, title IV, § 402(b), 64 Stat. 558; Pub. L. 94–273, § 33, Apr. 21, 1976, 90 Stat. 380; Pub. L. 98–369, div. B, title VI, § 2663(l)(1), July 18, 1984, 98 Stat. 1171; Pub. L. 103–296, title I, § 104(a), Aug. 15, 1994, 108 Stat. 1470; Pub. L. 106–169, title II, § 211(a), Dec. 14, 1999, 113 Stat. 1842; Pub. L. 114–74, title VIII, § 845(a), Nov. 2, 2015, 129 Stat. 618.)

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