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Research Note #10:
How the First Social Security Field Office Came to be in Austin,
Texas |
Following the August, 1935 passage of the
Social Security Act, the new Social Security Board faced huge administrative
challenges as it had to create a large organization from scratch.
Throughout the waning months of 1935 and into early 1936 much of the
planning was done for the new organization. Budget estimates were
especially difficult because no organization existed in the federal
government performing the tasks the Board would be required to undertake,
and so past experience could not be used as the basis for the estimates,
and because many provisions of the Act involved federal financial
support of optional State programs, and it was impossible predict
which States would create corresponding State programs.
Budget matters were further complicated by the fact that Senator Huey
Long (D-LA) had filibustered the Administration's final appropriation
bill at the end of the Congressional session in August 1935, causing
Congress to adjourn without appropriating any money to implement the
Social Security Act. In fact, to even get started at all, the Social
Security Board had to borrow money from the budget of the Works Progress
Administration. Indeed, budgetary matters were so severe that the
three executives comprising the Social Security Board (John Winant,
Arthur Altmeyer and Vincent Miles) all had been on the job since September
or October of 1935 and were not paid for the first time until February
1936!
As soon as the new session of Congress was convened, the Administration
submitted its appropriation request for the Board for the remainder
of fiscal year 1936 and for the coming fiscal year 1937. (The government's
fiscal year in that era ran from July 1st to June 30th. Fiscal year
1937 thus would begin on July 1, 1936.) In August 1935 the three members
of the Board had submitted an initial budget (the one Huey Long had
blocked) based essentially on nothing but guesswork since they didn't
even have a staff at that point, and they had no opportunity for any
planning prior to submitting that first request.
On January 9, 1936 the House Appropriations Committee, chaired by
Congressman James P. Buchanan (D-TX), conducted hearings on the Board's
new budget request. One month later, on February 9th, the Congress
finally passed a basic budget for the Social Security Board for the
remainder of 1936, with the understanding that the Board could submit
a later supplemental request if it deemed it necessary. The fiscal
year 1937 budget submission was also due. So on April 23, 1936 the
Board again went before the House Appropriations Committee to defend
its budget request for the remainder of 1936 and all of 1937. During
the hearings there was sharp questioning of the Board's estimates
by several members of the Committee, including Chairman Buchanan.
The Board admitted to a great deal of uncertainty in its estimates,
and even suggested cutting in half its estimate for administrative
expenses for the three remaining months of fiscal 1936.
By the first of May no action had been taken by the Committee and
Board Chairman John Winant called on Committee Chairman Buchanan to
see if he could expedite matters. During his meeting with Buchanan,
Winant learned to his shock that the Committee was planning major
cuts in the Board's budget request. Buchanan told Winant to expect
a cut of at least 25% in the Board's fiscal 1937 administrative budget,
among other reductions. Winant tried to persuade the Chairman that
such a cut would be unbearable; he even tried to bargain for a 20%
reduction, but Buchanan was non-committal.
Toward the end of the meeting Buchanan raised the issue of the placement
of the Board's 12 Regional Offices. Chairman Buchanan informed Winant
that he wanted one of the Regional Offices to be placed in the Chairman's
hometown of Austin, Texas. The Congressman made it clear that if Winant
wanted his help on the Board's budget request, that this was the quid
pro quo he had in mind. This presented a problem for Winant since
the Board had already selected San Antonio, Texas as the site of the
Regional Office for the southwest, and had already made a hiring commitment
to the individual who would be serving as the Regional Director. Even
so, Winant felt he had to agree to the Chairman's terms and so he
pledged to move the Regional Office to Austin.
After returning to his office, Winant began to have second thoughts
and realizations about the administrative difficulties this commitment
would cause. As he was sailing for Europe in two days on a tour of
European social insurance systems, he dropped the matter on the desk
of the Board's Executive Director, Frank Bane, with the request that
Bane see if there was anything he could do to repair the damage. Bane,
a consummate diplomat, explored with Chairman Buchanan whether some
accommodation could be worked out. The deal finally agreed to was
that Buchanan would drop his insistence that a Regional Office be
located in Austin in exchange for the placement of the first field
office in Austin. And so, the first Social Security District Office
was opened in Austin, Texas on October 14, 1936.
(When the fiscal 1937 budget was finally passed in June 1936, the
appropriation for the Board's administrative budget had been reduced
by slightly less than 20%.) |
Larry
DeWitt
SSA Historian's Office
January 2001 |
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