George Voinovich

If you are an attorney out there and you get a chance to get a lifetime appointment if you become an administrative law judge for Social Security, that is quite an incentive.

It is going to fall apart again.

I think it is an area ripe for some oversight hearings and legislation.

I am sure Senator Akaka has had people come up to him and say, 'That person is on Social Security disability and they have another job,' or, they are painting their house or whatever the case may be.

So often people get lost in the shuffle here, and I have several cases here, I mean, unbelievable situations where people have been out there delayed.

This is an issue that Senator Akaka and I have been working on a long time.

Well, it should have been done a couple years ago.

Well, where are you right now? You are on a continuing resolution. What does that mean to you?

Does their performance have anything to do with their pay?

In other words, you have 48 percent more cases than you had in, what, 2008?

Could you not work that out with John Berry and say, 'John, we have to give him your insight in terms of the kind of people that----'

What kind of peer pressure does your organization exert on your judges in terms of meeting high standards?

It is an American tragedy, in my view. And I am sure it is not consistent with the intent of Congress.

But the fact of the matter is there are some wonderful things that do happen in the Senate, and one of them is this wonderful relationship that I have had with Senator Akaka.

if I had been mayor and had not gotten our appropriations done on time, or Governor, I would have been impeached.

Great. Well, listen, we thank you very much. I think that I have learned a lot today, and, again, I appreciate your coming here to Akron.

One of the things that I have pointed out to folks around here, particularly the media, is that they are not aware of some of the really good things that are happening in the U.S. Senate in various committees and how chairmen and ranking…

the creation of DHS was the largest public sector reorganization, perhaps in history.

When we talked to Mr. Borras this morning, I indicated to him that it would be good if you would look at it and comment on whether you think it makes sense in order to deal with the acquisition problem.

And you agree that what they have come back with is a good plan in terms of integration.

Thank you for your work and pass the word on that the Senator from Ohio is really happy.

Well, as I said, it would give me comfort to know that they have had a role of looking at this and have signed off and said, 'That is a way to get the job done,' and then you would agree on, well, let us agree on whether we are getting it…

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

And the last thing is the resources that you need to get the job done. The problem is it will always get shortchanged, and it just drives me crazy that more departments do not really stand up and start raising all kinds of you know what…

If we do not give you the resources to get the job done, how can you do it?