As a candidate, Senator Barack Obama issued a white paper on the need to redesign the process for Social Security Disability and SSI applications.  The comments are found in a lengthy Obama Disability Plan Fact Sheet.

At page 7 of that statement, entitled "Streamline the Social Security Approval Process", the position paper notes the terrible delays in obtaining decisions from the Social Security Administration, because the agency "has been consistently under-funded." The statement says that the new administration is "committed to streamlining the current application and appeals procedures to reduce the confusion that surrounds these important programs." In addition, they promise to "ensure that the SSA has the funding it needs to hire judges and staff and to invest in technology to expedite final decisions."

The Social Security Administration has had a series of major revisions, each promising to streamline the process.  Most of those plans called for eliminating the second step in the disability process, the Reconsideration phase, eliminating the Appeals Council, which is the step after the ALJ hearing, and requiring claimants'' attorneys to introduce evidence at least five days before hearing. All of those ideas have some merit, but have generally been opposed by members of Congress from both parties, as not being practical.

Some new initiatives have included the idea of a Social Security Court, similar to the Tax Court and the Court for VA Disability. That idea has also been opposed by members of both parties as not practical.

The hearing process has certainly been underfunded for many years, at times suffering through crippling hiring freezes. If the new administration can provide adequate funding, the waiting time could drop appreciably, although not dramatically. There have been other causes for the delays, including a personnel dispute over the process of hiring new Administrative Law Judges, which have now apparently been resolved.

The Social Security Administration has also been implementing some new initiatives that should cut down the waiting time for hearings.