Federal Daily - October 2, 2009

DoD Releases Details on Homeowners Assistance Program

DoD on Sept. 30 released eligibility priorities for the $555 million Homeowners Assistance Program (HAP) designed to partially reimburse servicemembers, surviving spouses or civilian workers whose government work forced them to relocate and sell their primary residence at a loss. The HAP program was expanded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed in February and is meant to cover those affected by the economic downturn. The program is not designed to pay 100 percent of losses or to cover all declines in value, DoD said, but it can help to protect eligible applicants from financial catastrophe. Those eligible include active and former members of the armed forces or their surviving spouses—as well as DoD and Coast Guard civilian employees and non-appropriated fund civilians. The new DoD rules will dictate who is first in line for the assistance. Top priority is given to servicemembers who were wounded or injured, or who fell ill in the line of duty, while deployed since Sept. 11, 2001, and who have relocated to receive medical treatment. Within that category, applications generally will be processed in chronological order of the wound, injury or illness. Next in line for help will be surviving spouses who relocate within two years after the death of a servicemember or civilian spouse. Next up are servicemembers and civilians affected by the 2005 base realignment and closure (BRAC) process. Under the rules for the expanded effort, homeowners do not have to prove that the BRAC process caused a drop in housing prices. Finally, assistance will be offered to servicemember homeowners who have been forced to sell their homes due to permanent change of station orders. To see more, go to: www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=13009 or www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123170500.

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OSC Confirms Improper Procedures in Reemploying VA Nurses

The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) on Sept. 30 announced it had confirmed allegations that more than 100 retired government nurses were improperly rehired and paid at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Portland Medical Center. The retired VA nurses were inappropriately hired as fee-basis appointees and paid for the time worked, rather than on a per-procedure basis, OSC said. Under VA policy, those hired on fee-based terms must be paid per procedure, task or type of service—not for the amount of time they work, OSC said. Also, since the nurses were reemployed federal annuitants, they should have had their income reduced by the amount of the annuity they each received, OSC said. The office also found that some of the fee-based appointees were paid in excess of the annual $15,000 limitation without receiving a waiver obtained by the facility director, and that some of the nurses were paid more than the amount approved in their fee-based agreements. The OSC findings are a follow-up to a March 4 VA Office of Inspector General report. OSC noted that corrective actions have been taken, and that VA human resources specialists have received new training on the reemployment of annuitants. Additionally, the improper fee-based appointments were terminated, and efforts to recover the overpayments to the retired nurses have been initiated, OSC said. To see the OSC letter, go to: www.osc.gov/documents/press/2009/pr09_16.pdf. Or to see the VA report, go to: www.va.gov/oig/52/reports/2009/VAOIG-08-02512-84.pdf.

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Added SSA Staff Helps Reduce Claims Backlog

Newly added staff are helping the Social Security Administration (SSA) gradually reduce a massive backlog of pending disability claims, SSA announced Sept. 30. The agency ended Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 with fewer disability hearings pending than in the prior year, 722,822 hearings pending compared to 760,813 hearings in FY 2008, a decrease of 37,991 cases, or about 5 percent. Also, the average processing time for the cases improved from 514 days in FY 2008 to 491 in FY 2009. To help cut the backlog in FY 2009, SSA hired 147 new Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) and 850 support staff—and plans to hire 226 more ALJs plus support staff in FY 2010, said SSA Commissioner Michael J. Astrue. To assist the most backlogged hearing offices, the agency also opened three new National Hearing Centers in Albuquerque, N.M.; Baltimore and Chicago. SSA also plans to open 14 new hearing offices and four satellite offices by the end of next year, with the first of those opening in Anchorage in the next few months. To see more, go to: www.ssa.gov/pressoffice/pr/hearings-backlog-pr.htm.

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