Senators concerned SSA can't manage increasing number of retirees

Sen. Charles E. Grassley's staff met with the inspector general to discuss the latest report last week. J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Key Republican aides met with the Social Security Administration's internal investigator on Thursday to discuss lingering concerns that the agency's aging data center will not be able to manage an increasing workload as millions more baby boomers retire.

Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Finance Committee, and Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, the committee's ranking member, sent a letter in February requesting that the SSA inspector general assess the agency's overall future information technology plans. In June, the inspector general found that the agency must accelerate construction of a new data center and develop contingency plans in the event its backup datacenter cannot support the agency's increasing workload if the new data center is not completed by 2015, the year SSA estimates the center will be operational.

During the next few years, a flood of retiring baby boomers is expected to strain the agency's National Computer Center, which processes and tracks Social Security and disability benefits for about 60 million Americans.

In its fiscal 2009 evaluation of SSA's major management challenges, the inspector general in November highlighted a concern that the agency's investments in IT infrastructure weren't keeping up with its current and future workloads. The increasing number of cases is taxing SSA's ability to process benefits, according to the inspector general. SSA estimates that by 2012 the center no longer will be able to manage the caseload, three years before the new data center is scheduled to come online. In addition, structural problems and electrical issues demand SSA build a new center.

"Continued reliance on [the database system] exposes the agency to significant risks, including delays in its ability to improve its systems functionality," the report stated. "We believe the replacement of the NCC and having the systems capacity needed to meet its workload are challenges for the agency."

On Thursday, Grassley's staff met with the inspector general about the latest report, discussed the new data center and asked the agency to keep the senator apprised of the situation, a spokeswoman said. Baucus had no response to the report.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed by President Obama in February provided SSA with $500 million to replace its deteriorating National Computer Center. The latest IG report criticizes the transparency of the agency's plans to overhaul its IT systems. Social Security's public planning documents "lack meaningful performance measures that address its efforts to improve its outmoded and inefficient IT infrastructure," the report stated.

While SSA's strategic plan states that its operations depend on a 21st century data center, nowhere does the agency provide a corresponding benchmark to help the public monitor progress on construction. Nor does the agency offer a yardstick to track its progress in upgrading the center's computer programs.

At present, the center relies on disjointed software applications that operate within an antiquated database system, which SSA is overhauling .

Social Security officials on Monday referred Nextgov to their comments published in the inspector general report, which noted they have developed a risk management plan for the project that is designed to ensure proper project management, have an appropriate site for the center, an oversight plan for construction and aligned the center with the agency's strategic IT vision.

Also, SSA in May began using a second processing center, the Durham Support Center in North Carolina, to provide backup processing.