I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1876
To prevent closure of social security field and hearing offices and resident
stations.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH5, 2025
Mr. L
ARSONof Connecticut (for himself, Mr. NEAL, Mr. DAVISof Illinois, Mr.
H
ORSFORD, Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ, Mr. BISHOP, Mr. DELUZIO, Mr. NADLER,
Ms. T
LAIB, Ms. JACOBS, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. THOMPSONof Mississippi,
Mr. J
ACKSONof Illinois, Ms. TITUS, Mr. COHEN, Mr. KRISHNAMOORTHI,
Ms. B
UDZINSKI, Mr. QUIGLEY, Ms. SA´NCHEZ, Ms. CHU, Ms. SEWELL,
Mr. B
OYLEof Pennsylvania, Mr. SCHNEIDER, Mr. IVEY, Mrs.
C
HERFILUS-MCCORMICK, Mrs. MCIVER, Mrs. HAYES, Ms. DELAURO,
Mr. T
AKANO, Ms. ELFRETH, Ms. ANSARI, Mr. PANETTA, Mr. SUOZZI,
Mr. K
HANNA, Mr. LYNCH, Ms. MOOREof Wisconsin, Ms. MCCOLLUM,
Mrs. W
ATSONCOLEMAN, Mr. TONKO, Mrs. DINGELL, Mr. THOMPSONof
California, Mr. S
TANTON, Ms. BARRAGA´N, Ms. NORTON, Mr. JOHNSON
of Georgia, Mr. G
OTTHEIMER, Mr. AUCHINCLOSS, Mr. CARSON, Mr.
S
ORENSEN, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. LANDSMAN, Ms. DELBENE, Mr.
H
UFFMAN, Mr. POCAN, Mr. AMO, Ms. KELLYof Illinois, Ms. UNDER-
WOOD, Ms. KAPTUR, Mr. RILEYof New York, Ms. PLASKETT, Ms. RAN-
DALL, Mr. VARGAS, Ms. BROWN, Ms. PETTERSEN, Mr. MFUME, Mr.
S
WALWELL, Ms. BROWNLEY, Mr. MORELLE, Ms. MATSUI, and Mr.
M
CGARVEY) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Ways and Means
A BILL
To prevent closure of social security field and hearing offices
and resident stations.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Keeping Our Field 2
Offices Open Act’’. 3
SEC. 2. PREVENTING CLOSURE OF FIELD AND HEARING OF-4
FICES AND RESIDENT STATIONS. 5
(a) M
ORATORIUM ON CLOSURE ORCONSOLIDATION 6
OFFIELD ORHEARINGOFFICES ORNEWLIMITATIONS 7
ONACCESS TOSUCHOFFICES.— 8
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-9
graphs (2) and (3), the Commissioner of Social Se-10
curity shall take no action on or after the date of 11
enactment of this Act to close or consolidate field or 12
hearing offices or resident stations of the Social Se-13
curity Administration or to otherwise impose any 14
new limitation on access to such offices or stations. 15
(2) E
XCEPTION FOR EMERGENCY CLOSURES .— 16
Paragraph (1) shall not apply with respect to any 17
temporary action by the Commissioner to close or 18
otherwise limit access to field or hearing offices or 19
resident stations in response to an emergency. 20
(3) C
ESSATION OF MORATORIUM UPON REPORT 21
TO CONGRESS.—Paragraph (1) shall cease to be ef-22
fective on the date that is 180 days after the report 23
described in paragraph (4) is submitted. 24
(4) R
EPORT REQUIRED.—Not earlier than Jan-25
uary 21, 2029, the Commissioner shall submit to the 26
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•HR 1876 IH
Committee on Ways and Means of the House of 1
Representatives and the Committee on Finance of 2
the Senate a report outlining and justifying the 3
process for selecting field or hearing offices or resi-4
dent stations to be closed or consolidated or other-5
wise to have limited access. Such report shall in-6
clude— 7
(A) an analysis of the criteria used for se-8
lecting field or hearing offices and resident sta-9
tions for closure, consolidation, or limited ac-10
cess; 11
(B) a description of how the Commissioner 12
has analyzed and considered relevant factors, 13
including transportation and communication 14
burdens faced by individuals serviced by the of-15
fices and stations, including elderly and dis-16
abled individuals; and 17
(C) a description of any method of cost- 18
benefit analysis applied by the Commissioner in 19
connection with closures and consolidations of 20
such offices and stations, and other limitations 21
on access the offices and stations, including any 22
analysis that takes into account— 23
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•HR 1876 IH
(i) the anticipated savings resulting 1
from the closure, consolidation, or limita-2
tion on access; 3
(ii) the anticipated costs associated 4
with replacing services lost by the closure, 5
consolidation, or limitation on access; 6
(iii) the anticipated effects on employ-7
ees of the offices or stations affected; 8
(iv) how the loss of access resulting 9
from the closure, consolidation, or limita-10
tion on access will be replaced by the es-11
tablishment of a new field or hearing office 12
or resident station, increased access at a 13
different office or station, or some other 14
means, and the factors considered by the 15
Commissioner in determining how to re-16
place such lost access; and 17
(v) such other relevant factors as may 18
be determined by the Commissioner, in-19
cluding but not limited to transportation 20
and communication burdens faced by indi-21
viduals serviced by the offices and stations, 22
including elderly and disabled individuals. 23
(b) R
EQUIREMENTS FOR FUTURECLOSURES, CON-24
SOLIDATIONS, ANDNEWLIMITATIONS ONACCESS.— 25
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(1) IN GENERAL.—Section 704 of the Social 1
Security Act (42 U.S.C. 904) is amended by adding 2
at the end the following new subsection: 3
‘‘(f)(1) F
IELD ANDHEARINGOFFICES ANDRESI-4
DENTSTATIONS.—Subject to paragraph (6), the Commis-5
sioner may not close a field or hearing office or a resident 6
station of the Administration, consolidate two or more 7
such offices or stations, or otherwise impose any new limi-8
tation on public access to any such office or station, unless 9
the Commissioner complies with the requirements of para-10
graphs (2), (3), (4), and (5) in connection with the clo-11
sure, consolidation, or limitation on public access. 12
‘‘(2)(A) The requirements of this paragraph are met 13
in connection with a closure, consolidation, or new limita-14
tion on access referred to in paragraph (1) only if— 15
‘‘(i) not later than 120 days before the date of 16
the closure, consolidation, or limitation on access, 17
the Commissioner provides effective public notice of 18
the proposed closure, consolidation, or limitation on 19
access (including, to the extent practicable, notice by 20
direct mailing and through community outlets such 21
as newspapers and posting in heavily frequented 22
public spaces) to individuals residing in the area 23
serviced by the affected offices or stations; 24
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‘‘(ii) the public notice issued pursuant to clause 1
(i) includes information on— 2
‘‘(I) how the Commissioner will, not later 3
than 30 days after the date of the closure, con-4
solidation, or limitation on access, replace the 5
loss in access resulting from the closure, con-6
solidation, or limitation on access by estab-7
lishing a new office or station, increasing public 8
access to a different office or station, or some 9
other means; and 10
‘‘(II) how to contact the Administration if 11
an individual experiences service delays or prob-12
lems as a result of the closure, consolidation, or 13
limitation on access; and 14
‘‘(iii) not earlier than 30 days after the 15
issuance of public notice pursuant to clause (i) and 16
not later than 45 days before the date of the pro-17
posed closure, consolidation, or limitation on access, 18
the Commissioner conducts at least 2 public hear-19
ings (scheduled so that the first and last such hear-20
ings are separated by at least 10 days), at which the 21
Commissioner presents the justifications for the clo-22
sure, consolidation, or limitation on access described 23
in subparagraph (B) and provides for attendees an 24
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opportunity to present their views regarding the pro-1
posed closure, consolidation, or limitation on access. 2
‘‘(B) The justifications referred to in subparagraph 3
(A)(iii) shall consist of the following: 4
‘‘(i) an analysis of the criteria used for selecting 5
the field or hearing office or offices, or the resident 6
station or stations, for closure, consolidation, or lim-7
ited access; 8
‘‘(ii) a description of how the Commissioner has 9
analyzed and considered relevant factors, including 10
but not limited to transportation and communication 11
burdens faced by individuals serviced by the offices 12
or stations, including elderly and disabled individ-13
uals; and 14
‘‘(iii) a description of a method of cost-benefit 15
analysis which shall be applied by the Commissioner 16
in connection with the closure, consolidation, or limi-17
tation on access, and which shall take into ac-18
count— 19
‘‘(I) the anticipated savings resulting from 20
the closure, consolidation, or limitation on ac-21
cess; 22
‘‘(II) the anticipated costs associated with 23
replacing services lost by the closure, consolida-24
tion, or limitation on access; 25
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‘‘(III) the anticipated effects on employees 1
of the offices or stations affected; and 2
‘‘(IV) such other relevant factors as may 3
be determined by the Commissioner, including 4
but not limited to transportation and commu-5
nication burdens faced by individuals serviced 6
by the offices and stations, including elderly 7
and disabled individuals. 8
‘‘(C) The notice provided pursuant to subparagraph 9
(A)(i) shall include notice of the time and place of the 10
public hearings to be conducted pursuant to clause (A)(iii) 11
and of the right of aggrieved individuals to appeal to the 12
Commissioner regarding the proposed closure, consolida-13
tion, or limitation on access pursuant to paragraph (4). 14
‘‘(3) The requirements of this paragraph are met in 15
connection with a closure, consolidation, or limitation on 16
access referred to in paragraph (1) only if, not later than 17
30 days before the date of the proposed closure, consolida-18
tion, or limitation on access, the Commissioner submits 19
to the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of 20
Representatives, the Committee on Finance of the Senate, 21
and each Member of the Congress representing a State 22
or congressional district in which the affected office or of-23
fices, or station or stations, are located a detailed final 24
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report in support of the closure, consolidation, or limita-1
tion on access. Such report shall include— 2
‘‘(A) the justifications described in paragraph 3
(2)(B), (including any amendments made to such 4
justifications after the public hearings conducted 5
pursuant to paragraph (2)(A)); 6
‘‘(B) any findings made by the Commissioner 7
pursuant to the public hearings; 8
‘‘(C) the status of any appeals regarding the 9
closure, consolidation, or new limitation on access 10
which were commenced pursuant to paragraph (4) 11
before the date of the report; 12
‘‘(D) the final decision of the Commissioner re-13
garding the closure, consolidation, or new limitation 14
on access; and 15
‘‘(E) such other information as the Commis-16
sioner considers relevant. 17
‘‘(4)(A) Upon timely request by any individual who 18
makes a showing in writing described in subparagraph (B) 19
in connection with a proposed closure, consolidation, or 20
limitation on access referred to in subparagraph (A), the 21
Commissioner shall give such individual an opportunity for 22
a hearing with respect to the closure, consolidation, or lim-23
itation on access. The request for the hearing shall be con-24
sidered timely only if it is made not later than 30 days 25
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before the proposed date of the closure, consolidation, or 1
limitation on access. The Commissioner shall submit to 2
the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Rep-3
resentatives, the Committee on Finance of the Senate, and 4
each Member of the Congress representing a State or con-5
gressional district in which the affected office or offices, 6
or station or stations, are located the Commissioner’s find-7
ings based on the hearing and a description of any action 8
taken or to be taken by the Commissioner on the basis 9
of such findings. 10
‘‘(B) A showing described in subparagraph (A) shall 11
consist of a showing that— 12
‘‘(i) the determination of the Commissioner to 13
close a field or hearing office or resident station, 14
consolidate field or hearing offices or resident sta-15
tions, or impose a new limitation on access to such 16
offices or stations is arbitrary, capricious, an abuse 17
of discretion, not in accordance with law, or not 18
based on substantial evidence; or 19
‘‘(ii) the Commissioner has failed to observe 20
procedures required by law in connection with the 21
closure, consolidation, or new limitation on access. 22
‘‘(5) The requirement of this paragraph is met in 23
connection with a closure, consolidation, or limitation on 24
access referred to in paragraph (1) only if such closure, 25
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consolidation, or limitation on access will not result in the 1
total number of field or hearing offices and resident sta-2
tions of the Administration falling below the total number 3
of such offices and stations that were in operation on Jan-4
uary 20, 2025. 5
‘‘(6) Paragraph (1) shall not apply with respect to 6
any temporary action by the Commissioner to close or oth-7
erwise limit access to field or hearing offices or resident 8
stations in response to an emergency.’’. 9
(2) E
FFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made 10
by paragraph (1) of this subsection shall apply with 11
respect to closures and consolidations of field or 12
hearing offices and resident stations and impositions 13
of new limitations on access to such offices and sta-14
tions occurring after the cessation of the moratorium 15
under subsection (a) of this section. 16
Æ
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