 At each turn over the last 12 months, immediate
delivery of EIPs has been, and remains, a top priority for this
agency. SSA’s public service mission is squarely focused on many of
those who are most economically-vulnerable in our society and we owe
it to our beneficiaries to ensure they receive their EIPs right
away. In fact, it was the substantial efforts of SSA that
successfully overcame the fact that the IRS did not have a mechanism
to automatically identify Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
recipients, some of the most financially insecure people in America.
It was SSA that pushed the prior Administration and Congress to
allow us to send to IRS a file of those individuals, who do not
receive forms SSA-1099, so that IRS could automatically issue EIPs
to them.
Since the time that discussions began regarding issuance of EIPs in
the ARP Act, weeks before passage, we have worked tirelessly with
our counterparts at IRS to provide to them the information they need
to issue payments to our beneficiaries. Despite the fact that
Congress did not directly provide SSA funding to support our work on
EIPs, we have provided countless hours of assistance to IRS
consistent with the laws that establish how we may use the Trust
Funds that every American counts on us to protect.
SSA discussed with Treasury and IRS, both before passage and after
enactment of the ARP Act, that the Social Security Act does not
allow the agency to use our administrative appropriation to conduct
work on any non-mission provision or program. Accordingly, we were
not authorized to substantively engage Treasury or IRS prior to the
ARP’s passage. Instead, upon passage, we were required to pursue a
reimbursable agreement with IRS because we received no direct
appropriation through the ARP Act. From the outset of discussions,
we kept congressional staff apprised of the hurdles this approach
would create for SSA, and we have continued to update them on our
progress with IRS as we completed the required interagency
agreements.
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column] |
 Once we were free to move
forward, we aggressively worked with Treasury and IRS to issue
payments. As a result of our efforts, we successfully signed the
reimbursable agreement and a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) less
than one week after passage, on March 17. That process often takes
weeks or months to complete, but we got the job done in a matter of
days. A few days later, on Monday, March 22, SSA sent initial test
files to IRS. IRS confirmed testing success on Wednesday, March 24.
Production files were delivered to IRS before 9 AM on Thursday,
March 25 – more than a week sooner than we were able to provide a
similar file to IRS during the first round of EIPs.
While we were working through the agreements with IRS that would
fund our efforts to support issuance of EIPs, we were also
protecting the integrity of the EIP program by updating the files
that IRS will use to issue payments to our beneficiaries. Those
updates to our files ensure that payments go to correct bank
accounts and addresses, and, that those who are deceased are removed
from the files. In short, Social Security employees have literally
worked day and night with IRS staff to ensure that the electronic
files of Social Security and SSI recipients are complete, accurate,
and ready to be used to issue payments. There is no one more
committed to serving the public than the employees of this agency,
and there should be no doubt whatsoever that they are striving each
day to serve the vulnerable populations to whom they have committed
their careers. I find any insinuation to the contrary to be
unacceptable.
I assure you that we will continue to do all we can to support
implementation of the ARP Act.”
[Jack Myers
Public Affairs Specialist
Social Security Administration]
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