Well I had originally started down the
road of visiting in person, the Senate
Committee on Health, Education, Labor,
and Pensions. That was during my last
trip to Washington in September.

The office was left empty for nearly
45 minutes and I had to move on to
my other destinations if I was to finish
at all.

Continuing on by telephone also took
me down an unexpected road and that
has taken some time to sort out.

It seems that the people at this committee
are utterly confused about what their
own jurisdiction is, so if that doesn't
send a signal to you about what kind
of trouble they are in, then I just don't
know what does.

I was hoping to bring to you clear
and uncomplicated information about
where to file grievances complaints
over issues involving the Social
Security program. But guess what,
everybody? That topic is divided
across 2 different Committees in the
Senate and they are themselves confused
at times about where the actual
boundaries are for each committee.

So I bring to you what I have in
hand right now, but understand if
you are looking to file on the Social
Security issue for an oversight
investigation, you may actually feel
like a pinball bouncing around with
flippers pushing you back and forth
between these 2 committees.

They had nothing at all definitive to
offer me as a guideline to get it right
on the very first filing. What they
have said to me is to just go ahead
and file your papers and let them
determine between the 2 committees
which one actually has jurisdiction.

Both Committees DO accept filings from
the public so I did manage to get
that one out of the way and answered.

It is an option, to clever and more
literate Veterans, to construct a series
of complaints intended for Social Security
but phrasing it as VA fraud. In other
words, if the VA is crapping up your
case through a series of deliberately
falsified documents and you cannot
find any police authority to do some
kind of intervention, then you can
file under the Social Security jurisdiction
and claim that VA is involved in
Social Security FRAUD by falsely
denying your case on premises which
you are not even filing for. Get it ??

This is a back door strategy for getting
the police spotlight on the VA while
using Social Security as your filing
destination.

Here are the 2 Senate Committees who
have jurisdiction over Social Security
matters:

1. The Senate Finance Committee

2. The Senate Committee on Health,
Education, Labor, and Pensions.

Yes I thought this was all a little
weird too but it is very much on their
respective websites which I am giving
you the LINKS for below.

The Senate Committee on Health does appear
to have more expanded jurisdiction over
health policy and the entire agency
of the Dept. of Health and Human Services
as well as the National Institute of
Health and apparently even parts of the
World Health Organization. This would
be of interest to hazardous exposure
Veterans.

The Finance Committee has more to do
with Social Security program practices
including the disability claims process,
AND Medicare and Medicaid. But the Health
Committee also has shared responsibility
for Medicare and Medicaid so they had
nothing to offer me for clarity on this
joint topic.

For Veterans who are looking to raise
complete hell on the Social Security
venue of claims, then these are the
2 committees where ya have to file.
Please remember here that the current
session has ended and the new session
will not be starting until January 2009.
What you can do is clearly mark a banner
headline across your document set that
says something to the effect of: Filing
for Investigation for New January 2009
Session and that way your intentions
will be made known and you can hopefully
avoid a "thank you for sharing" letter
as they explain to you that this years
session is no more.

Follow the recommended guidelines I have
posted for drafting a complaint at the
beginning of this FORUM below. But
to that end, here are the Committee
LINKS for you now to sort out and
figure where it is that you really
need to file.

One of the main issues going on with
Vet related Social Security claims right
now is there is no existing process
to "reopen" a case after it is adjudicated
(unlike the VA process) so that
corrections to the original case can
be made, such as in hazardous exposure
cases or declassified document information
where medical information becomes
known AFTER the Social Security case
is already posted.

Social Security has no existing filing
form to reopen a case, and I have talked
to Social Security claims lawyers and
they have told me this. So has the SSA
agency itself.

God help anyone if new information
comes to light that changes the original
Social Security ruling papers. I say
this all needs to change, and that
is one area that I personally point
to in Social Security that seriously
needs fixing.


The LINK for the Jurisdiction Page
of the Senate Finance Committee

http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/jurisdiction.htm

FAX Filings Are Allowed Here for 10
pages or smaller: (202) 228-0554


The LINK for the Jurisdiction Page
of the Senate Committee On Health,
Education, Labor and Pensions


http://help.senate.gov/Health_index.html

FAX filings are allowed here for
10 pages or fewer: (202) 224-3533


Please get your strategies mounted
and ready for this next up and coming
session and be ready to file in Washington
by January. I am bringing to you the
seeds of power here and it will be
your failure if you do not use it
to your advantage.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: McClellanVet,