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     The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has completed its review of Social Security's proposed final rule which will remove inability to communicate in English as a criteria in disability determination. The rule was approved and should be published in the Federal Register in the near future.

     From a Notice of Proposed Rule-Making (NPRM) that will appear in tomorrow's Federal Register: ... W e propose to clarify that an AAJ [Administrative Appeals Judge] from our Appeals Council may hold a hearing and issue a decision on any case pending at the hearings level under t itles II, VIII, or XVI of the Act . Just as ALJs [Administrative Law Judges] have the authority to hold hearings on a variety of disability and non - disability claims, we would not limit the kinds of claims that AAJs c ould hear. AAJ s would be required to follow the same rules as ALJs, and the hearings they hold would apply the same due process protections as hearings held by our ALJs . ...      This is only a proposal. The public may comment on the proposal. Social Security must consider the comments. If the agency wishes to go ahead with final regulations, they have to submit them to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for approval. This is a process that or...

     Social Security has asked the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to approve final changes to its musculoskeletal Listings used in determining disability. There has been considerable opposition to the proposal. We cannot know at this point what is in the final regulations. OMB will probably approve the proposal in the next few months at which point Social Security can finalize the process by publishing the regulations in the Federal Register.

     The Office of Management and Budget has cleared for publication in the Federal Register a package of proposed regulations on the frequency and notice of continuing disability reviews. This is only a proposal. The public may comment on the proposed rules. This proposal had been pending at OMB since March 13. That's an extraordinary time for a proposal to be pending, suggesting that there may be something controversial in the proposal. This is Social Security's vague description of the proposal published in the Unified Agenda last Spring: ... The proposed regulations would add a new category to our existing medical diary categories that we use to schedule CDRs and would revise the criteria we follow to place a case in each of the categories. They would also change how often we perform a CDR for claims with the medical diary category for permanent impairments. These revised regulations would ensure that we continue to identify medical improvement a...