Opening Statement of Senator Susan M. Collins, Ranking Member

This is completely unrealistic. The fact of the matter is millions of seniors and disabled Americans are not accustomed to doing business online.

I think that is just such a perfect example of why the face-to-face encounter is so important.

That also worries me. We have seen a little bit in the VA scandal of a variation of that that led in some cases to a falsification of numbers.

In your opinion, was SSA just determined to shut the office no matter what?

I use it in my office to meet with constituents who cannot travel to one of my six offices in Maine or cannot travel at all.

I am saddened that our veterans have been forced to wait for the healthcare they need and deserve, so until the VA can solve this problem I, like many other Texas veterans, want to help care for them.

the indiscriminate budget cuts of sequestration would result in the loss of a deployable aircraft carrier.

the chances of these girls being reunited with their families grows ever dimmer.

I do not see where you are really going to save on staff and be able to give the kind of service that Ms. DeLong is giving.

I mean that sincerely.

I am also, like the Chairman, concerned by the lack of transparency in the Social Security Administration's process for closing field offices or reducing their hours.

I applaud your holding this hearing on a topic of great concern to all of us, and that is, the impact on the beneficiaries of Social Security of the Social Security Administration's reduction of person-to-person services.

I really am sympathetic to your budget constraints and the number of employees that you have lost...

I really commend you for that. Aroostook County is a very large, very rural area, and we have a lot of seniors who are homebound or cannot travel long distances, and the fact that you are making such an effort to get services to them is…

$4 million for one Social Security office?

It is hard to understand why those particular offices would be closed.

Did the Social Security Administration officials give any specific reasons why they could not accept some of those offers so that it could maintain the office at a reduced cost?