New Bill Calls for Advance Notice of Social Security Field Office Closure

H.R. 7228 "would provide important protections to make sure residents are meaningfully involved whenever changes are coming to their local field offices to mitigate harm on our communities," Moore said.

"Social Security field offices are essential for the high quality of public service that the American people expect and have paid for," Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, told ThinkAdvisor Tuesday in an email. "This is more true now than ever before, given the Trump administration's hollowing out of the Social Security Administration."

Moore's "important bill ensures that the public and members of Congress have ample notice about any intention to close a field office," Altman relayed. "That will give them time to weigh in and make sure SSA takes the impact on the local community into account."

Absent a health emergency, notices to shutter a field office must be sent no less than 180 days before a closure.

SSA must then hold at least two hearings "no earlier than 30 days or later than 120 days after the notice goes out," according to Maria Freese, senior legislative representative at the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.

Before a closure, the bill states that SSA must also:

• Post notices at the affected field office and surrounding field offices (they can also mail notices or provide other means of notification at the commissioner's discretion);
• Notify any member of Congress whose constituents would be affected by the closure;
• Hold no fewer than two public hearings in the area affected by the closure;
• Post an official report about the hearings, including how SSA plans to address concerns raised;
• Received approval from the SSA Inspector General

Moore's bill "includes a carefully considered process for ensuring that SSA retains some flexibility to respond to changing neighborhoods and service demand levels — while protecting beneficiaries' access to proper customer service," added Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, in another email. "This is in stark contrast to the capricious changes that the Trump administration has made at the SSA without apparent regard for beneficiaries' real needs."

The bill, for instance, requires the SSA commissioner to post notification of a closure at the affected field office and other nearby field offices, mail such notification to residents in the area served by that office, publish such notification in newspapers printed in the area, or take other actions the commissioner determines to be necessary.

Under the bill, SSA "would not be able quietly shutter field offices without warning," said Shannon Benton, executive director of the Senior Citizens League, on Tuesday via email. "Seniors, communities, and lawmakers would have six months to prepare, respond, and push back on a proposed closure."

SSA must also set out its "plan to mitigate disruption in service for the community served by the field office, including any special needs of the community and any anticipated impact on vulnerable populations such as the elderly, individuals with disabilities, and those with language or mobility challenges," the bill states, and ''provide an opportunity for public comment, including an opportunity to recommend alternatives to such action."