00:01:19.940 - 00:02:03.910

mhm. Okay. Okay. Mhm. Yeah, yeah! Mhm, Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hello. I'm Senator Lawton Child's and I don't want to welcome you to the Lawton Child's update today. We're going to examine a subject that has a potential impact for each of us. It has to do with the Social Security administrators plan to modernize its computers.

00:02:04.540 - 00:02:22.660

We'll also look in depth at the federal budget process. But first I want to talk to you about another subject was the focus of a town meeting I held recently. More than a million Floridians live in mobile homes, and a new regulation by the Federal Emergency Management Administration could affect 100,000 of them.

00:02:23.910 - 00:02:42.960

The real calls for new mobile homes located in floodplain zones to be elevated above the floodplain. That means new mobile homes or mobile homes purchased for location in floodplains must be placed on stilts or peers. Some of the piers will be 15 ft high and could cost more than $10,000.

00:02:44.140 - 00:03:14.910

I held a meeting about the new proposal in a modern mobile home park in Largo. And while Fairway Village is not located in a floodplain and none of the residents there would be affected. The location was typical of Florida's beautiful mobile home parks. Speaking at the meeting where representatives of the Florida Manufactured Housing Association and citizens who had already been affected by the new rule I shared with him my concern over the possible impact this new regulation may have on our mobile home owners.

00:03:15.840 - 00:03:34.480

I'm not sure that the Federal Emergency Management Agency rule makers have given this as much thought as they might. And I feel certain that they haven't been down here to Florida to see for themselves the impact their regulations will have on Florida mobile home owners nor the industry as a whole.

00:03:34.940 - 00:03:54.180

I'm bothered that these rules would cause a complete disruption of some of the existing communities, uh, condemning them to a slow death by attrition. The regulations may cause the Uprooting of close communities, or they may cause the individual owners to bear heavy cost of relocation in compliance with the rules.

00:03:54.640 - 00:04:18.360

Also question whether the act of elevating the homes and paying the high cost really improves the overall safety, and not to mention concerns about the problem which additional steps and the danger of falls present to our older residents. Finally, I wonder about the impact of the appearance of mobile home parks when some of the homes are raised and others aren't.

00:04:18.900 - 00:04:47.060

I have a feeling these rules Maybe, uh, maybe just another attack on mobile homeowners, because some people don't like them. They call them Trailer Parks. I wish the Federal Emergency Management Agency folks would come down to Florida. Take a look at the communities, uh, that we have here, like this one, and then I think they realize they're not disrupting a couple of homes here and there.

00:04:47.440 - 00:05:18.150

They're disrupting as well established communities and families. Hector Ball for is president of the Federation of Mobile Home Owners and past chairman of its legislative committee. He gave me a general assessment of the impact the new regulation would have on mobile homeowners. Just imagine what would happen to the design of this neighborhood if one or two homes on a particular street towered above the others on wooden pilings or earth and man made hills.

00:05:20.340 - 00:05:51.560

Now, in addition to the aesthetics, the F. M O has received several complaints from other potential Expect aspects of the FEMA rule. These complaints include genuine fears about the effects of wind and rain. In other words, are we cutting off our nose? And despite our face in alleviating a flooding problem, are we putting ourselves in a precarious position when a hurricane blues blows into the state as they are prone to do?

00:05:52.540 - 00:06:15.670

We have pictures here today, and we have pictures that we've taken, and we have them in other other files that show how some elevated mobile homes have been sheared off the top of pilings. And how about the situation where a mobile home owner is required to contract for hauling in landfill to raise his mobile home several feet above ground level?

00:06:15.680 - 00:06:34.660

When it rains, the neighbors will be inundated with runoff and erosion from the elevated property. Many of the mobile home owners who would be affected by the rule or retired citizens living on fixed incomes. Lorraine Sweezy is president of the Federation of Mobile Homeowners in Sarasota.

00:06:35.340 - 00:06:56.750

She explained what this regulation could mean to retired people in her district. She told of the effects high winds would have on elevated mobile homes. This new FEMA rule is broken and badly in need of fixing. It needs to read grandfather in existing mobile homes and mobile home parks.

00:06:56.980 - 00:07:23.700

The impact of the ruling is exasperating, demoralizing and traumatic. I represent approximately 17,000 mobile homeowners in Sarasota County alone. Many of these are senior citizens, many with health problems, and to think of the possibility of having to master stairs are the lawn care of a mound of up to 18 ft is simply mind boggling.

00:07:24.540 - 00:07:52.360

The very same ruling could also prove to be a financial hardship, since it is government mandated, it is a legal pass through for park owners. That is, that park owners could bring in X number $5 of landfill and assessed to this to the mobile home owner were densely populated along the West Coast, the barrier islands in all areas lying west of Highway 41.

00:07:52.840 - 00:08:14.950

We have many canals running inland, where we have many mobile home parks and mobile home owners. Some of the older parks could not accommodate and elevation are even stilts due to the fact that they placed so closely together. So what happened to the owner, who suddenly finds himself without a home because of lost to fire or some other disaster?

00:08:15.940 - 00:08:40.260

ST. George's Island, located along the Panhandle is an example of what happened during the high winds of Alina. Those mobile homes built on the ground were virtually undamaged, while those built on stilts were totally destroyed. Let us think of the cosmetic effect. Do you want to live next door to a mobile home that is some 17 to 18 ft higher than you?

00:08:41.240 - 00:09:05.750

How about the high winds? What damage will come from high winds and this elevated home to the adjoining homes? Foremost company insurance company says that more damage is done by wind than by water. Elevating a mobile home can cost plenty. And for some folks, the effort in expenses don't always work out.

00:09:06.340 - 00:09:26.660

Marie Day of McComas said she had spent $9000 to raise her home. She had to raise it twice because the fill dirt crumpled away the first time for bringing in more dirt side and the railroad ties. That was $4000 more mhm. What did it cost you the first time?

00:09:27.640 - 00:09:51.290

45 45 the first and then an hour. Another 4000? Yes, And then, of course, the driveway was there. But I had to have something that was either uh, shells. And whatever it is they put on driveways now or habit tar, Veed or paid and, uh, $500 was the cheapest.

00:09:51.300 - 00:10:17.360

So I had that, and that was the all the shells. I don't know just what they do. Call it so altogether. I spent $9000 extra just to make the house stay there. And then it is such an angle that it was railroad ties there that it's hard to know you have to use the electric.

00:10:17.370 - 00:10:38.260

What do I would say? Weed eater? Two more, most of it. And it cost me $25 every time. I have a mold, and it really isn't that big of a lot. Most mobile homes weren't designed to be elevated in the way the rule mandates. Major modifications are necessary to prepare many homes for elevation.

00:10:39.140 - 00:11:02.850

Jim Lyons is the general manager of Fleetwood Enterprises, located in Lakeland. It's the largest mobile home manufactured in the United States. He explained the difficulties of raising a mobile home. I suggest, as everybody else has suggested, that we delay the effective date of this particular ruling, that an economic impact study is done and that the manufacturers are involved.

00:11:03.940 - 00:11:33.940

Um, I've had some experience with elevating homes in the last 10 years, was involved in a project down in Key Largo, which required us to elevate homes on pilings probably 15 18 ft. I would guess it's been a long time ago. I know that it took some rather radical design changes to the chassis to make that structure, uh, able to to rise that distance and be properly supported by the pilings took a lot of engineering work.

00:11:33.940 - 00:11:55.760

A lot of, uh, you know, labor hours and some extra steel lumber and and such. Uh, it's not just as easy as picking one up and raising it in the air, so it cost a lot of money to Yes, it does. It seems to me the economic impact on mobile home owners, manufacturers and community should have been investigated more thoroughly before the rules were proposed.

00:11:56.540 - 00:12:19.650

After our town meeting, I offered an amendment to the supplemental appropriations bill in the Senate. This amendment would reopen the comment period on the rule change and force the government to develop alternative plans. My men would pass the Senate and it's now awaiting final congressional approval, Mobile homes are an important part of our communities, and the rule makers need to listen more carefully to the people who live in them.

00:12:20.040 - 00:12:38.410

I'll be right back when you graduate from college. What will you be able to offer an employer? I like working with people. I really like working with. People really like people. I'm a people person. I'm eager, eager, eager. I think I'm eager, and I was president of Offer an employer something meaningful.

00:12:38.410 - 00:13:06.400

Practical work experience. A nationwide college program called co op Education can give you that competitive edge and not even relocate right coop education. It's the experience you need for the job you want. There was a time when an 18 year old couldn't vote a time when there was no meaningful way for young adults to express their opinions.

00:13:07.340 - 00:13:42.320

But change that. The 26th Amendment, the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution, the words we live by Welcome back. The Social Security Administration has been telling Congress for some time that it's buying new computers to help it work more efficiently and effectively. The computers keep track of Social Security accounts and carry out more than 280 million changes a year to its earning records.

00:13:42.330 - 00:13:59.520

They also help provide information to the Treasury Department so Social Security benefits can be paid on time with Social Security has had problems with its computer system. And while attempts have been made to upgrade the system, the attempts have either failed or provided only limited improvements.

00:14:00.540 - 00:14:20.060

In 1982 the Social Security Administration declared its computer system obsolete and said they were impossible to maintain and suffered from backlogs and breakdowns. So they came up with the systems modernization plan to make the computer network tops and speed and reliability. But the new system isn't running the way it was playing.

00:14:20.640 - 00:14:38.950

It still has a lot of bugs to be worked out. The software, the programs that run the computers, won't even be ready until at least 1990. They've also been some questions about how the computer money has been spent with these problems in mind. I called a Senate hearing to examine the whole operation.

00:14:39.640 - 00:14:59.160

As chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services. I wanted some answers. I wanted to know what was being done about the computer problems, and while the system improvements were running so far behind. One of the things that bothered me most was why Social Security had not spent the money that had been given for modernization.

00:15:00.140 - 00:15:24.210

Mrs. Darkest Hardy is the commissioner of Social Security, and she was accompanied by Nelson Sabbatini, the deputy commissioner for management and assessment. There are a couple of charts there that I think helped to explain it. The one that's closest to me points out the huge amount of unspent funds that are carried over this pdf copy each years.

00:15:24.220 - 00:15:51.960

Social Security Administration Systems Modernization plan The White Bar for each year shows the amount that was budgeted for the computer system modernization. The dark bar shows the amount that was spent. And it's obvious from that to me that the program has to be way off track because the amount that spent each year since 1984 is way below the amount that the Social Security Administration budgeted.

00:15:52.640 - 00:16:39.060

We see the figures are fairly close. In 83 $27 billion actually more spent than was budgeted at 38 to 27. The third bar is probably the most distressing thing that I see. You know, out of this report. And that shows that of the $335 million that spent 100 and 47 was spent on the actual projects that were submitted in the budget to the health and Human Services and to the Office of Management and Budget for approval, and that more than half of all the spending was for projects that the S s a had never requested in its budget submissions.

00:16:39.640 - 00:16:54.570

Now, I don't know whether you or Mr Sabatini can give me an answer as to why that happens. But maybe, Mr Sabatini, you have a longer a corporate memory here than Mrs Hardy. But either one of you, I'd like to. I'd like to try to find something.

00:16:54.570 - 00:17:15.720

Well, I think we can both address. And, Mr Chairman, I think my concern I share your concern in terms of the expenditures. But I also believe if we never needed the whole 610 or 600 million, we get to the end of this thing that we would have done an even better job that if we didn't spend if we had X that we put in front of us and we didn't spend all of it.

00:17:15.720 - 00:17:27.360

I would feel very good about it. If we had still accomplished the same things that we had set out to do, I'd feel great about it. But why the hell would you keep asking for more every year? We've asked for a lot less this year, which I'm real pleased about.

00:17:27.740 - 00:17:46.060

And hundreds we've asked for 100 million. And we believe that this is the last year that we will have what I call rollover or carry over money that you have given us that discretion to have. The concern that I also have is that we have technology, which is much cheaper now than our estimates.

00:17:46.440 - 00:18:12.980

The purchases that we have made our one third in some of the cases of what we had expected when the first estimates were done and hardware is getting less expensive. Um, we have looked at all of how we're using all of this equipment, and I think there were some over estimates in the beginning of all of this, and I think we can figure out exactly how we need to spend those dollars and go forward with it, and this is the as we proposed.

00:18:12.980 - 00:18:33.800

This is the last budget where we would have any carry over dollars. Senator, Mr 17, um 1988 budget is requesting the lowest dollar amount for new money in the systems area 1982. The request that we have for new money in 88 say is the lowest we've had since 1982.

00:18:33.810 - 00:18:59.460

You know that again is not a very good answer to me. The lowest amount. Why are you requesting any? If you've got $300 million sitting there that you're not using, it's well, it's 200 million that's being carried over that was carried over into 87. Well, I've got 601 and 3 35 and the total amount carried over in 1987 was Two are from 86 in the 1987 was 214 million.

00:18:59.470 - 00:19:20.670

We have taken and we have reduced, and we're as concerned about the UN obligated balances as you are. Another question I had for Commissioner Hardy dealt with the delays in the computer software program. The 1990 delivery date is three years off in the software delay only creates more hard times for Social Security program.

00:19:21.040 - 00:19:52.960

If the software had been ready earlier, we would have fixed severe problems in what's called the post entitlement process, the programs to update and correct beneficiary and address changes. I asked Commissioner Hardy about the delays. The claims modernization project has been drastically delayed. This component would have fixed severe problems with post entitlement processes, and those processes refer to changes in benefits for individuals already receiving monthly checks.

00:19:53.640 - 00:20:18.670

Uh, you have that report, I'm sure. On January, the 22nd, uh, we released that report to Secretary Bowen and ask you to give us a response to the General Accounting Office's report. We've got your response. And in your response, you state that the General Accounting Office was wrong when it found that the claims modernization project had been drastically delayed.

00:20:19.240 - 00:20:38.230

As I mentioned before, G. A o asserted that these drastic delays related to the improvement of the post entitlement process, and your assertion was that jail was wrong. It was based on the contention that fixing these post entitlement processes was never a part of the claims of modernization process.

00:20:38.740 - 00:21:02.050

Uh, is is basically, uh was that your explanation of that I think, Mr Chairman, that it's a question of semantics and definitions. The systems modernization plan, as I see it as the big picture, is the whole umbrella under which there are 646 depending six parts, one of which is claims modernization.

00:21:02.440 - 00:21:20.770

Um, another piece is what we call the program benefits lag, which is where the post entitlement piece fits. I don't think it's I think the issue again is whether we're not. We're on schedule, and the answer to whether or not we're on schedule with Post Entitlement is unfortunately, we're not as good as we should be.

00:21:21.340 - 00:21:49.220

And, on the other hand, the claims modernization project and what we call CMP Fosse, which is claims modernization project field, office field. Off the side of this thing is the installation of the terminals and the ability to take claims automatically. The whole question of, uh, address changes, post entitlement work and also supplemental security income work is not where it should be.

00:21:50.240 - 00:22:17.550

Beneficiaries should get prompt attention when they have a problem with their Social Security checks. The question is now we're gonna have to wait till the mid nineties to be able to get this my understanding is you know, what does this mean In technical terms? We're using these terms that this this as I understand it, the jargon for the post entitlement process boils down to whether S s a s ability to quickly process beneficiary name and address changes.

00:22:17.560 - 00:22:39.490

That's one of the items were talking about excessive delays and re processing, missing or stolen checks. Now, you know, those are pretty important to people that are out there that are beneficiaries. That post entitlement doesn't seem to mean much. But you tell me, you know, I know the phone calls each of us get when there's a missing check or when a check has been stolen.

00:22:39.500 - 00:23:03.950

Uh, delays in changing the records of a deceased beneficiary, which results in incorrect payment to survivors. Uh, my mail, you know, is replete with those kind of problems. Inability of the computer system to automatically process requests for beneficiaries to re compute payment accounts. Those are the meat and potatoes of where, you know people have their problems with Social Security.

00:23:04.850 - 00:23:24.160

Since our hearings, I've met again with the Social Security commissioner. I explained to her that Congress could no longer fund the computer system at the levels they requested until they've spent the funds they've already accumulated. She got the message. The Social Security Administration does critical work, and there's just no room here for waste or mismanagement.

00:23:24.640 - 00:24:00.860

It's important that these computers run smoothly and operate efficiently so that all beneficiaries can receive the best service possible. I'll keep you up to date on this and let you know how things are moving. We'll be right back ST. Any city, any town temptations, dead ends danger mean streets where kids can run into trouble.

00:24:01.540 - 00:24:23.570

But there's a way to beat the streets. The boys club. Where you going, Alex? No way. Come here. This is Edward James Olmos. I found a way to beat the streets when I joined the Boys Club. Today, more than a million kids at over 1100 boys clubs across America are beating.

00:24:23.570 - 00:24:44.610

The street's doing something positive with their lives. Then the boys club is a friend. Kids need the boys club. We need your help. Support your local boys club club beats the streets, needs a hand Yours. In January, we looked at the opening ceremonies of this year's budget cycle.

00:24:45.140 - 00:25:06.770

Today we're going to see how it all came out, you recall. After months of hearings, both the House and the Senate passed slightly different versions of the budget, so we held a conference to work out the differences. The conference process took about five weeks. The House and the Senate weren't very far apart, but a debate over how much should be spent for defense took some time.

00:25:07.800 - 00:25:34.160

As the final session of the conference convened, I talked about how we had finally gotten together. Resolving differences is never easy. Willingness to talk is certainly a necessary ingredient. It's always easy to be a critic and to put your foot down and say, No progress only comes when people finally get together and ask how.

00:25:35.040 - 00:25:54.670

Well, of course, the how involved in this effort was obviously important to those of us who had to put the budget together. But there is something far more important. It was the why If there's one fact that was always with us in our talk, it's that this country can't go on borrowing as usual as a way to handle the economy.

00:25:56.140 - 00:26:14.550

Borrowing is and has been, throughout the eighties the way to mishandle our affairs. The conference report was approved by our members shortly after I spoke a week or so after that, the budget was approved in the House of Representatives, and the following day it came up to the Senate for debate on the Senate floor.

00:26:14.550 - 00:26:35.760

I spoke at some length about the actual provisions in the budget and finished off by talking about a virtue that's indispensable to success. Cooperation. You really don't get very far on something as important as the national budget unless everyone gets involved, Mr President and these preliminary thoughts, I've tried to be candid about the circumstances.

00:26:36.340 - 00:26:57.270

The Democrats in the Congress have been forced to move ahead without the help that we've asked for so often in the past. We brought this agreement to the floor and we'll proceed and we will proceed in good faith. But what we want most is a solid budget plan to cut the deficit and put the economy on firm footing.

00:26:58.010 - 00:27:18.000

And what we want next is a cooperative approach. We want the help of the president. We believe the country wants the White House to be a full and active partner in our work. The president is never hesitated to say what he thinks. I think it's important that the president understand what we think now.

00:27:18.010 - 00:27:36.920

What we have to do is reach a mutual understanding and work together. I have every confidence that that could be done. After nine hours of debate, the Senate passed the budget by a vote of 53 to 46 where the plan finally approved. Congress will next move on to deal with the changes in the law to enforce the budget.

00:27:37.940 - 00:28:03.170

That process is called reconciliation. Here's how it works. Under reconciliation, Congress must actually change the spending laws to enact the savings ordered by the budget. These changes, which become the reconciliation bill, must be signed into law by the president. And there's the rub because while the budget passed with 53 votes, it takes 67 votes to override a presidential veto.

00:28:03.640 - 00:28:23.270

Well, the months ahead will show whether Congress and the president can join forces to do what's necessary and best for the country. And that's to begin eliminating the federal deficit. Will it be easy? Well, nothing that's really worthwhile is ever a snap. But as I said on the Senate floor, I'm confident that the job can be done.

00:28:23.810 - 00:29:23.860

A lot of it's going to depend on one important word. Cooperation. Well, that's it for today. I hope you'll join me next time for the Lord and Child's update. But yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Mhm. Okay. Yeah. Mhm. You do? Okay. Mhm. Uh huh. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mhm.

00:29:31.040 - 00:29:55.180

I'm Lawton Child's that we're going to explore on the next lot in Child's update. What can be done about a new regulation that adversely affects mobile homes? I hope you'll join us. Imagine this mobile home that's 15 ft up in the air. Uh, we're going to examine new regulations that would require this on the next Lawton Child's update.

00:29:55.190 - 00:29:56.360

I hope you'll join us.