I 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 5221 

To prohibit the use of funds to develop, test, deploy, implement, or administer 

the Disability Case Processing System, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 8, 2018 

Mr. GROTHMAN (for himself, Mr. LOUDERMILK, and Mr. DESJARLAIS) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways 

and Means 

A BILL 

To prohibit the use of funds to develop, test, deploy, implement, or administer the Disability Case Processing System, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. ELIMINATION OF SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINIS4 TRATION DISABILITY CASE PROCESSING SYS5 TEM. 

6 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 

7 (1) In 2014, whistleblowers informed the Com8 mittee on Oversight and Government Reform that 

9 the Social Security Administration (in this Act reVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:12 Mar 16, 2018 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5221.IH H5221

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1 ferred to as the ‘‘SSA’’) has spent nearly 

2 $300,000,000 on a failed information technology 

3 modernization project known as the Disability Case 

4 Processing System (in this Act referred to as the 

5 ‘‘DCPS’’). 

6 (2) On July 25, 2014, the Chairman of the 

7 Subcommittee on Social Security of the Committee 

8 on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives 

9 requested that the SSA Inspector General (in this 

10 Act referred to as the ‘‘SSA IG’’) conduct an ‘‘inves11 tigation into the SSA’s management and failed im12 plementation of the DCPS costing the taxpayers 

13 close to $300 million to date.’’. 

14 (3) The SSA IG, in its November 2014 initial 

15 report, stated that it had concerns with the SSA’s 

16 approach and recommended that the SSA not spend 

17 more funds until it determined whether the commer18 cial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software could be used. 

19 (4) In May 2016, the SSA IG reported that the 

20 SSA had spent over $300,000,000 on the DCPS 

21 project, ‘‘for which it would receive little benefit’’, 

22 and according to the SSA, it would still need 

23 $90,000,000 to $165,000,000 to deliver the first re24 lease of the new Core DCPS between July and De25 cember of 2016. 


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1 (5) The SSA IG reported in September 2016 

2 that, since its inception 8 years earlier, the SSA’s 

3 reported costs for the DCPS project were 

4 $356,000,000. SSA estimated it would still need an 

5 additional $122,000,000 through 2019 for the 

6 project. 

7 (6) In its September 2017 report, the SSA IG 

8 reported that the SSA’s goals were to deliver full 

9 functionality of DCPS by April 2018 and full de10 ployment systemwide by September 2019, bringing 

11 the total expenditure for the DCPS project to over 

12 $500,000,000. However, even after 3 years of re13 porting on DCPS, the SSA IG concluded that ‘‘given 

14 the uncertainty of the future growth of the backlog 

15 and SSA’s ongoing development velocity, we were 

16 unable to conclude whether the Agency’s release 

17 goals were reasonable.’’. 

18 (b) PROHIBITION ON FUNDING FOR DCPS.—None of 

19 the funds available to the Social Security Administration 

20 for any fiscal year may be used to develop, test, deploy, 

21 implement, or administer the Disability Case Processing 

22 System or any substantially similar program unless spe23 cifically authorized by Congress. 

Æ 


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