Hearing of the Senate Finance Committee - Social Security Advisory Board Nominations

Hearing

Thank you, Chairman Wyden, for holding today's session to consider nominations for the
Social Security Advisory Board.

The Advisory Board is intended to be a bipartisan Board to advise Congress, the
President, and the Commissioner of Social Security on policies related to Social Security's oldage, survivors, and disability insurance programs as well as the Supplemental Security Income
program.

The charge to the Board is, essentially, to analyze, study, and make recommendations
related to those programs. The Board has tried to focus on analyses of economic tradeoffs and
examination of the activities taking place within those programs. The work of the Board can
involve economics as well as actuarial science. For the most part, the Board has worked toward
arriving at bipartisan analyses and recommendations and using positive economic analysis
rather than normative economic analysis.

In my assessment, the quickest way for support in Congress for the Advisory Board to
erode is for it to slip into partisan battles, and to make recommendations that rely on political
views of Board members, rather than positive economic and actuarial analysis. The Board's
Chair sets the tone of the Advisory Board's agenda and analyses, and too much partisanship,
without adequate allowance for diverse, but reasoned, views is a threat to the relevance and
continuation of the Board's activities.

There are, of course, differences in the way reasonable people assess tradeoffs that we
face when considering something as complex and large as the Social Security system and the
Supplemental Security Income program. The way to resolve reasoned differences is not to
merely argue that the other side is wrong because they don't agree with certain assumptions or
policy positions. Rather, the way to resolve differences is to weigh the facts and present evidence-based tradeoffs that are relevant, so that Congress and others can make informed
decisions.

I've expressed these concerns before, particularly in reference to one of the nominees
we'll be considering today. I won't say much on that matter now, only that my previous
comments and concerns still hold and that I will be voting accordingly.

Whatever is ultimately the composition of a full Social Security Advisory Board, I hope
that all present and future members of the Board are clear about their mission and that they put
bipartisan consensus at the top of their list of priorities.

I hope that the Board does not dissolve into a partisan battleground.

And, I hope that the Board does not spend undue energy in attempts to lobby Congress
on our program funding decisions or on legislative priorities that do not represent the consensus
of the entire Board.

Once again, thank you Chairman Wyden for holding today's session.

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