Secretaries' Innovation Group

Disability: Inherent Problems, Practical Solutions

and Action for Reform

Hosted by:

Secretaries' Innovation Group

American Enterprise Institute

Brookings Center on Children and Families

Day 1: April 12, 2013

Topic A: Video

Hypothesis: The current federal disability growth trajectory cannot be sustained and fundamental restructuring of the eligibility and disability service system is required to avoid fund exhaustion, increased tax burdens and unacceptable reductions in the active labor force. 

Moderator:  Ron Haskins, Senior Fellow, Economic Studies and Co-Director, Center on Children and families, The Brookings Institution

Presenters: 

• Mark Duggan, Chair, Business Economics and Public Policy, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania; and member, Social Security Advisory Board Technical Panel on Assumptions and Methods

• Stephen Goss, Chief Actuary, Social Security Administration

Questioner:

• Daniel Mitchell, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute

Commenters:

• Kathy Ruffing, Senior Fellow, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

• Roger Mahan, Policy Advisor, Office of the Majority Leader, House of Representatives

Topic B: Video

Hypothesis:  Disability approvals have expanded to enroll many individuals who are capable of working full time or part time in the private economy.  

​

Moderator:  Ron Haskins, Senior Fellow, Economic Studies and Co-Director, Center on Children and families, The Brookings Institution

Opening in support of Hypothesis: Richard V. Burkhauser, Sarah Gibson Blanding Professor of Policy Analysis, Professor of Economics, Cornell University; and Adjunct Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute

Presenters:

• Michael Donnelly, Director, Kansas Rehabilitation Service

• Bob Steggert, Former Vice President Casualty Claims, Marriott International

• Andrew Houtenville, Associate Professor of Economics, University of New Hampshire; and Research Director, UNH Institute on Disability

• David Wittenburg, Senior Researcher, Center for Studying Disability Policy, Mathematica Policy Research

• Dorcas Hardy, Former Commissioner, Social Security Administration

Topic C: Video

Hypothesis: Increasing work participation has a positive effect on health and well-being of disability applicants and beneficiaries, and the absence of work activity has an independent negative effect in individuals' health and well-being.

Moderator:  Ron Haskins, Senior Fellow, Economic Studies and Co-Director, Center on Children and families, The Brookings Institution

Opening in support of hypothesis: Kim Burton, Ph.D., Center for Health and Social Care Research UK; Co-Author, Is Work Good for Your Health and Well-Being?, publication of the Department of Work and Pensions, UK

Presenters:

• Jennifer Christian, MD, President and Chief Medical Officer, Webility Corporation

• Robert E. Drake Ph.D., Professor of Psychiatry and the Dartmouth Institute, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth

• Marsha Netus, Vice President and General Manager, America Works of Maryland

• Bryon MacDonald, Program, Policy and Development Manager, World Institute on Disability

• Kim Hutchinson, President and CEO, Disability Funders Network

• Debate-- Richard Burkhauser vs. Rebecca Vallas, Policy Advocate, Community Legal Services Philadelphia

Day 2: April 19, 2013

Topic D: Video

Hypothesis:  The disability determination process does not function well for its intended purpose of selecting and supporting those who cannot work in the national economy.

Moderator:  Ron Haskins, Senior Fellow, Economic Studies and Co-Director, Center on Children and families, The Brookings Institution

Opening in support of Hypothesis:  Richard J. Pierce, Lyle T. Alverson Professor of Law, George Washington University School of Law and Adjunct Scholar, CATO Institute

Presenters:

• Harold Krent, Dean and Professor of Law, IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law; and Consultant on Social Security Disability Adjudication, Administrative Conference of the United States

• Scott Szymendera, Disability Policy Analyst, Congressional Research Service

• Jo Anne Barnhart, Former Commissioner, Social Security Administration

Topic E: Video

​

Hypothesis:  The business sector must become engaged in finding ways to support employment rather than transferring marginal employess onto public benefits.  Incentives must be aligned to engage business in behavior that is both socailly constructive and profitable.

Moderator:  Ron Haskins, Senior Fellow, Economic Studies and Co-Director, Center on Children and Families, The Brookings Institution

Opening in support of Hypothesis: Kim Jinnett, Ph.D., Research Director, Integrated Benefits Institute

Presenters:

• Allyn C. Tatum, former Vice President, Tyson Foods; and former Chairman, Arkansas Workers Compensation Commission

• Richard Victor, Workers Compensation Research Institute 

• Jill Houghton, Executive Director, US Business Leadership Network

Topic F: Video

Hypothesis: Only fundamental reforms, pursued rapidly, can avoid a path in which an increasing proportion of people who could work are sidelined and the economy is burdened with a declining taxpaying workforce. 

Opening in Support of Hypothesis:  Henry Olsen, Vice President and Director, National Research Initiative, American Enterprise Institute

Specific Proposals:

• Richard Burkhauser, Professor of Economics, Cornell University; and Adjunct Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute

• David Stapleton, Director, Center for Studying Disability Policies, Mathematica

• Jack Smalligan, Branch Chief, Income Maintenance Branch and Acting Deputy Director, Education, Income Maintenance and Labor Division, Office of Management and Budget (the views expressed are his own and not of any institutions of government agencies with which affiliated)

• Jason Turner, Executive Director, Secretaries' Innovation Group

Respondent:

• Doug Besharov, Professor,School of Public Policy University of Maryland; and Director, Welfare Reform Academy

Closing:

DC Disability Event April 2013

**To view power point presentations, click on underlined speaker name.

**To watch video, click on underlined video by topic.