Court Opinion

ID: 9429626
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:27:23.399375+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:20.569883
License: Public Domain

*120Justice Marshall,
with whom Justice Brennan, Justice Blackmun, and Justice Stevens join,
dissenting.
This case determines an issue of vital importance to the Social Security Administration, to disabled Vermont residents, and to federal courts. By failing to ground its opinion in the factual record of the case at hand, the majority has discarded a balanced remedy crafted to effectuate a federal statute. Far from intruding clumsily into a pervasively regulated area, ante, at 119, the District Court fashioned a meaningful, carefully tailored statewide remedy that mandated feasible, expeditious reconsideration determinations and hearings, that did not cause extra cost to the Secretary or reallocation to Vermont of resources from other States, and that did not harm other statutory goals such as quality and accuracy of decisionmaking. Because that remedy is not expressly or impliedly prohibited by the Constitution or by statute, and is not an abuse of discretion, I would affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals.
I
A
As the majority opinion makes clear, the District Court’s declaratory judgment that the plaintiff class is entitled to relief is not at issue. The Secretary concedes that 42 U. S. C. § 405(b) compels her to provide claimants a hearing on disputed disability determinations within a reasonable time. Cf., e. g., White v. Mathews, 559 F. 2d 852, 858 (CA2 1977), cert. denied, 435 U. S. 908 (1978). The Secretary does not contest the District Court’s conclusion that, because under the Secretary’s regulations a hearing must be preceded by a reconsideration determination, see ante, at 106-107, such reconsiderations must also be completed within a reasonable time. The undisputed factual record, submitted primarily by the Secretary herself, supports the District Court’s declaratory judgment that the Secretary had failed to fulfill her statutory duty to provide the class representatives and a large portion of the plaintiff class reconsideration determina*121tions and hearings within reasonable periods of time. While the Secretary challenges classwide relief, she has not challenged the District Court’s certification of the plaintiff class. Our review, therefore, is limited to the equitable remedy crafted by the District Court and affirmed by the Court of Appeals.
B
A fair assessment of the validity of the District Court’s order requires a clear view of its content and the record on which it was based. In brief, the District Court ordered that a member of the plaintiff class — Vermont disability claimants whose benefits have been terminated and new applicants for disability entitlements — who requests review of an initial determination by the Secretary that he or she is not disabled must receive the Secretary’s reconsideration within 90 days of his or her request for review. If the reconsideration is adverse and the claimant requests a hearing, the hearing must be held within 90 days of the request. However, both of these time limits are subject to exceptions which have tolling effect. If the Secretary does not provide a hearing within the time limits, she is required to provide interim benefits, which she may recoup if the claimant is ultimately found not to be entitled to benefits.1
*122The District Court was careful to ensure that its order had no repercussions outside the State of Vermont. The certified class was limited to Vermont Title II claimants. The Secretary stated that the resources allocated by Congress to process hearing requests in that State were the resources she needed to do the job.2 There was no evidence before the court that enforcing Vermont claimants’ statutory right to timely hearings would require the Secretary to reallocate her resources to the detriment of disability claimants in other States.3
The District Court ordered compliance with the prescribed time limits only after reviewing extensive responses to interrogatories, in which the Secretary acknowledged not only that she was able to comply with those limits, but that it was her stated policy to do so.4 The record also supported the court’s decision to craft nine exceptions to those time limits. The Secretary argued that the review process required some flexibility, and specified a variety of circumstances in which delay in completing a reconsideration or scheduling a hearing was justified. The District Court tailored its remedy to accommodate each of the Secretary’s submissions. If a claimant offers new medical evidence, reports new medical treat*123ment since the initial determination, agrees to undergo a consultative examination when the Secretary so suggests, causes a delay by failing to provide the information needed to reconsider the initial determination of nondisability, or otherwise causes a delay, the District Court ordered that the 90-day limit on the time from a reconsideration request to issuance of the notice of the result be tolled. App. to Pet. for Cert. 33a. Because the Secretary urged that it was frequently in the claimant’s interest to delay, the court also tolled the time limit for any period of delay requested by the claimant or his representative. Ibid. Similarly, the District Court tolled the 90-day limit on the time from a request for a hearing to the provision of a hearing when the claimant or his representative either fails to provide information needed by the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) for adjudication, requests a delay, fails to appear for the scheduled hearing, or otherwise causes delay. Id., at 34a.
Finally, the remedy pertains only to the Secretary’s statutory obligation to provide hearings within a reasonable time. The order places no time limit on the Secretary’s issuance of decisions, although the plaintiffs, relying on the Social Security Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U. S. C. §§ 555(b),(e), 706(1), and the Constitution, included in their request for relief a plea that “a hearing decision be rendered promptly” after a hearing. App. 24. By its repeated references to decisions and overall processing time, the majority implies that the District Court tied the hands of ALJs, forcing them to evaluate complex disability claims in a race against the clock. The order we are reviewing simply does not speak to decisionmaking; it interprets and enforces only a claimant’s right to a timely hearing.
In sum, the District Court’s order was based on an extensive record of the actual operation of the disability program by the State of Vermont and the Secretary, and the plaintiff class members’ experience in attempting to assert their stat*124utory right to timely hearings. The order mirrored the Secretary’s stated policy of holding hearings within 90 days of a request, a policy she was capable of implementing without additional resources. The District Court created nine exceptions to the mandatory time limits, exceptions directly linked to the Secretary’s responsibility to make accurate determinations of disability. And the order placed no time limit on the rendering of decisions. With this clearer understanding of the relief granted by the District Court, we turn to the question whether such an equitable remedy is precluded by law.
I — I I — I
A
In the absence of a clear command to the contrary from Congress, federal courts have equitable power to issue injunctions in cases over which they have jurisdiction. Porter v. Warner Holding Co., 328 U. S. 395, 398 (1946). This Court has expressly rejected the arguments that the judicial review provision of the Social Security Act “does not encompass the equitable power to direct that the statute be implemented through procedures other than those authorized by the Secretary,” and that class injunctive relief is not available under 42 U. S. C. § 405(g). Califano v. Yamasaki, 442 U. S. 682, 705, and n. 17 (1979). Although Congress has delegated to the Secretary “full power and authority to make rules and regulations and to establish procedures,” 42 U. S. C. § 405(a), that discretion is limited by the requirement that procedures be consistent with the Social Security Act, and necessary or appropriate to carry out its provisions. Ibid. Courts may require the Secretary to comply with the statute. A federal court thus is not precluded by statute from ordering injunctive relief when the record in a case supports the conclusions that the plaintiffs are entitled to relief and that the likelihood of irreparable harm renders an available remedy at law inadequate.
*125B
The dominant rationale of the Court’s opinion is that an inconclusive debate in Congress during the past decade regarding the wisdom of establishing nationwide time limits on the Secretary’s review of disability applications clearly evinces the Legislature’s hostility to the statewide remedy ordered by the District Court. The postenactment legislative history emphasized by the Secretary and the majority has little relevance to the task before us. If any legislative history were helpful, it would be the history of the statutory provision that first accorded claimants a right to review of adverse determinations and a “reasonable . . . opportunity for a hearing.” Act of Aug. 10, 1939, ch. 666, §201, 53 Stat. 1368.5 That provision has remained intact for 45 years.
Although Congress has amended § 205(b) in various respects on seven occasions, it has repeatedly reenacted the “right to a hearing” provision without change or limitation,6 and has done so over the past decade with a full awareness that courts were enjoining unreasonable delays as con*126trary to the statutory purpose and violative of the rights conferred on disabled persons by the Social Security Act. This affirmative action deserves acknowledgment and weight. Cf. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc. v. Curran, 456 U. S. 353, 379-382 (1982); Cannon v. University of Chicago, 441 U. S. 677, 696-698 (1979); Lorillard v. Pons, 434 U. S. 575, 580-581 (1978). The postenactment legislative history simply does not support the conclusion reached by the majority because Congress’ failure itself to remedy the delay problem cannot be read to exclude judicial responses. Congress has long been aware of efforts by several federal courts to compel the Secretary to accelerate her review of adverse disability determinations,7 and has not taken any action to curtail such judicial innovation.8
*127What insight can be gleaned from the recent history supports the proposition that the District Court’s statewide prospective injunction setting time limits for reconsideration *128determinations and hearings, far from being inconsistent with “repeated congressional rejection of the imposition of mandatory deadlines on agency adjudication of disputed disability claims,” ante, at 119, effectively accommodates Congress’ concern that review of disputed disability determinations be both accurate and expeditious. While it is correct that Congress hitherto has not enacted a nationwide standard in statutory form, that inaction is relevant to the equitable remedy under review only if statutory nationwide time limits are functionally no different from time limits imposed by a court on the operations within one State. Clearly, they are not. A statutory response is inflexible, requires a concomitant commitment by Congress to provide the resources to enable the Secretary to comply with the standard across the Nation, and is difficult to amend in response to changing experience. A court-ordered timetable is a flexible response to a particular factual record. It can be narrowly tailored to accommodate both the Secretary’s obligation and the claimants’ rights within the framework of resources and practices in a defined jurisdiction. If new factual developments alter the equitable balance, a court can modify relief. See Fed. Rule Civ. Proc. 60(b)(5); New York Assn. for Retarded Children, Inc. v. Carey, 706 F. 2d 956, 967 (CA2), cert. denied, 464 U. S. 915 (1983).
Congress’ discussion and inaction might be relevant if, in rejecting a statutory remedy, Congress also rejected the existence of the problem. If any theme emerges from the post-enactment legislative history, however, it is that delay is inconsistent with the Social Security Act, and imposition of *129deadlines would be consistent.9 Congress repeatedly suggested to the Secretary that she formulate standards and report back to Congress on the feasibility of time limits.10 The Secretary repeatedly assured Congress that administrative steps would reduce hearing delays to an acceptable level.11 *130In fact, albeit under court pressure, the Secretary published proposed rules in the Federal Register in 1980, setting nationwide time limits on the review process, and in 1981 characterized revised rules as “realistic [time limits], which we plan to achieve, and for which we expect to be held accountable,” and as “time limits which can and should be achieved in the operation of the adjudicatory system as it currently exists,” without “significantly greater resources” or “decreases in decisional accuracy.”12
In sum, for several independent reasons, Congress’ reluctance to establish nationwide time limits within which the Secretary must resolve disputed disability claims does not support the inference that Congress disapproves the exercise by federal courts of their equitable power to ensure that disability claimants in particular jurisdictions are not deprived of their statutory entitlements. If any aspect of the post-enactment legislative history of § 205(b) of the Social Security *131Act bears directly on the problem before us, it is the fact that Congress has repeatedly reenacted the provision with the awareness that the courts had been ordering the Secretary to comply with time limits when necessary to prevent unreasonable delays in providing reconsiderations and hearings. There is thus no basis for the majority’s conclusion that the equitable remedy ordered by the District Court in this case is barred by implication.
Ill
Because the District Court’s remedy is barred neither by an explicit statutory restriction, nor by implication, it should be upheld unless it constitutes an abuse of discretion. The abuse-of-discretion standard is not toothless in this context. We have cautioned the lower federal courts against “engraft-ing their own notions of proper procedures upon agencies entrusted with substantive functions by Congress.” Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 435 U. S. 519, 525 (1978). Congress has mandated hearings on disputed disability determinations, but has committed implementation of the review and hearing process to the Secretary. I agree that the Secretary has substantial discretion, with which the courts should not interfere, in determining how to comply with her statutory obligations.
These general principles of judicial deference to agency discretion in devising procedures to achieve legislatively defined objectives are reinforced by some pragmatic considerations. Excepting, of course, those cases where denial of benefits rises to the level of violations of due process, I would agree that the problem of delay may at times not be susceptible to judicial solution. For example, when crowded administrative dockets are directly linked to limited congressional appropriations and lack of personnel, the only solution may lie in the hands of Congress. Similarly, when delays are directly linked to the fairness and accuracy of the adjudicatory process — for example, when delays result from the need to gather additional medical evidence relevant to the core issue *132of disability — only the agency charged with determining disability within the terms of the statute may be able to alleviate the problem.
On the other hand, the Secretary’s discretion cannot be boundless, and courts must determine whether her actions are sufficient to effectuate the individual entitlements created by Congress. Therefore, many situations quite appropriately call for judicial intervention. For example, when a standard for processing similar cases can be established from the agency’s own records, lengthy delays beyond that norm may indicate a dilatory agency response inconsistent with the statutory directive to provide a claimant a timely hearing. Similarly, if the agency’s records disclose specific inefficiencies or inactivity that bear no definable relationship to resource constraints or the need to ensure accurate decision-making, courts would be remiss in deferring to the agency’s unreasonably dilatory processing of claimants’ requests for review.
The record in the present case supports the conclusion that the District Court tailored its remedy to respond to causes of delay that are properly susceptible to judicial scrutiny and solution. The District Court considered record evidence of the agency’s standard for processing disability hearing requests. The Secretary offered the 90-day figure as her established policy for scheduling hearings. Prior to the District Court’s order, she provided hearings within that time in only 57% of the cases, with a 2- to 9-month range of delay. App. to Pet. for Cert. 15a. Yet the Secretary did not complain that she was prevented from complying with her own policy because of lack of resources. To the contrary, she stated that she had the proper complement of ALJs needed to conduct Title II disability hearings in Vermont.13 There*133fore, when the District Court ordered relief, no record evidence suggested that the Secretary would have difficulty complying.
When the District Court turned its attention to delays in the reconsideration process, it based its order on 77 representative case summaries provided by the Secretary. Again, the Secretary’s own standard was disposition in less than 90 days. The court accepted her description of the “complex and time-consuming” reconsideration process, which encompasses a de novo review of the existing record and any necessary supplemental evidence. The court therefore allowed a “reasonable time for locating the claim folder, forwarding it to the appropriate agency, obtaining and assessing additional evidence, and generating notices.” Id., at 29a. In each of the 27 cases in which reconsideration took longer than 90 days, however, the court found “periods of unexplained delay, not directly attributable to necessary steps in the reconsideration process.” Id., at 28a. It further found that, “when the explained delays in the case summaries are subtracted, most, if not all, of the cases could have been completed within 90 days.” Ibid, (emphasis in original).
Thus, far from imposing an arbitrary deadline on an embattled agency, the court looked first to the standard adopted by the agency itself for meeting its statutory obligation to provide timely hearings within the constraints of the resources available to it. Further, the court explicitly rejected the respondents’ contentions that delays beyond a specific number of days violated the statute, and that the mere passage of time justified the extraordinary relief sought by the plaintiff *134class. App. 99-100. Rather, the court framed the question as the reasonableness of the delays.14 The court’s demands to the parties over a 3-year period to produce a record sufficient to answer the question presented15 evinces its reluctance to substitute its own sense of proper agency procedure for that of the Secretary.
The court’s remedy similarly reflects its sensitivity to the special difficulties of administering the massive Social Security system, and to the challenges the Secretary faces in meeting the administrative goals of accuracy and promptness. Cf. Califano v. Boles, 443 U. S. 282, 285 (1979). By exempting from its order circumstances in which the agency needed to gather medical evidence and reports, the court responded to the Secretary’s concern that she not be forced to sacrifice accuracy for the sake of providing more expeditious hearings. By exempting circumstances in which the claimant failed to cooperate in the process or contributed to the delay, the court accommodated the Secretary’s concern that *135she be permitted the degree of flexibility required in the best interests of the claimants as well as the agency. And, of course, a significant accommodation to the Secretary’s concern for accurate determinations in the court’s order is its total exemption of the decisionmaking, as opposed to the information-gathering, process. There is no time limit whatsoever placed on ALJs’ deliberations and issuance of decisions. ALJs have sufficient time to deliberate to ensure accurate decisions, and to schedule new consultative examinations if additional evidence is required.
Finally, the consequences of the injunction are a further indication of the reasonableness of the court’s interpretation of the statutory mandate. Cf. Califano v. Yamasaki, 442 U. S., at 697. During the 28 months in which a hearing injunction has been in effect, the Secretary has met the standard in all but one case, without additional allocation of resources and subsequent adverse impact elsewhere in the Social Security Title II disability claims system. Brief for Respondents 30, n. 32; Tr. of Oral Arg. 33, 51. This record suggests both that the injunction has not had the slightest impact on the Secretary’s nationwide management of the disability review process, and that the injunction has had the desired effect of enforcing disabled Vermonters’ rights to timely hearings.
A remedy manifestly attentive to the Secretary’s practical and policy concerns should not be held to be an abuse of discretion. The District Court’s order applied only to delay that was found as fact not to be the “direct and foreseeable consequenc[e]... of the conscientious implementation of the Social Security Act.” Brief for Petitioner 33. Given the additional record evidence that 21.3% of the initial determinations that a claimant was not disabled within the meaning of the Social Security Act were found on reconsideration to be erroneous, and 56.2% of the decisions were reversed at the hearing stage, App'. 53, the court properly responded to the *136special urgency of enjoining unreasonable barriers to claimants’ receipt of benefits mandated by Congress.16
> I — l
In summary, the relief ordered m this case was founded on three correct premises. First, a federal court has a responsibility to enforce the right to a hearing expressly granted in the Social Security Act. The Act requires that such a hearing be timely. Second, the mere length of processing times does not constitute an adequate basis for classwide injunctive relief, for the delay may be attributable to reasons related to the Secretary’s mandate to make accurate as well as expeditious disability determinations within the constraints of the resources at her disposal. However, if the causes of delay are unrelated to the adjudicative process, the delay is unreasonable. Third, the unreasonableness of delay is of magnified significance when the record establishes that more than half of the Vermont claimants who pursue their right to an administrative hearing are found to have been disabled and to be entitled to the payments initially denied by the Secretary. By definition, a disabled person has been unable “to engage in any substantial gainful activity,” 42 U. S. C. § 423(d)(1)(A) (emphasis supplied), and deprivation of income works hardships that cannot adequately be compensated by *137retroactive payments following a delayed decision in his or her favor. Therefore, in the face of irreparable harm to the plaintiff class, which has established a statutory right to relief, a federal court properly may order injunctive relief, and properly did so in the present case.
I dissent.

 The occurrence of one of three events triggers the requirement that interim benefits be paid: the Secretary does not issue a reconsideration decision within 180 days of request; the Secretary fails to hold a hearing within 180 days (plus any delay attributable to the claimant) of a prior request for reconsideration followed by a request for a hearing; the Secretary fails to hold a hearing within 90 days of a request. App. to Pet. for Cert. 34a-35a. The Secretary retains the option under the District Court’s conditional order either to conduct review within the established time periods, or to initiate recoupable payments. The agency thus is not operating under the threat of contempt actions for failure to comply with the time limits, and the remedy is consequently minimally intrusive.
Nor has the District Court intruded into the day-to-day operations of the agency. The District Court requested and accepted a plan drafted by the Secretary to implement the order. See App. 196-200. Vermont Title II *122claimants’ requests for reviews of adverse initial determinations of disability are flagged with a cover sheet that notes the dates by which reconsider-ations and hearings should be held, and permits easy recordkeeping of any applicable exceptions that toll the time limits.

 Defendant’s Answer to Interrogatories Nos. 16, 17, App. 49 (averring that three Administrative Law Judges are needed to conduct Title II disability hearings in Vermont and three have been assigned to the State).

 The Secretary agrees that she has been able to fulfill her obligation to provide timely hearings as defined by the District Court. Since the Dis- - trict Court’s first injunction went into effect, the Secretary has been able to comply with the hearing timetable in all but one case, and she has done so without transferring any personnel or other resources into Vermont. Tr. of Oral Arg. 33, 51.

 Defendant’s Answer to Interrogatories, Nos. 19, 24, App. 50, 52 (agency’s established policy is to conduct hearings within 90 days of request).

 The legislative history of § 205(b) is sparse, but generally supports respondents’ position. The bill embodying the “right to a hearing” provision was intended “to strengthen and extend the principles and objectives of the Social Security Act.” H. R. Rep. No. 728, 76th Cong., 1st Sess., 5 (1939). The agency charged with implementation of the Act believed the timely provision of hearings to be “the essence of the task to be performed.” Federal Security Agency, Social Security Board, Basic Provisions Adopted by the Social Security Board for the Hearing and Review of Claims (1940), reprinted in Attorney General’s Committee on Administrative Procedure, Administrative Procedure in Government Agencies, S. Doc. No. 10, 77th Cong., 1st Sess., pt. 3, p. 37 (1941). The Social Security Board stated that all hearings should be held within 30 days of request. Id., at 45.

 Act of Aug. 28,1950, ch. 809, § 108(a), 64 Stat. 518; Act of Aug. 1,1956, Pub. L. 880, § 111, 70 Stat. 831; Act of July 30, 1965, Pub. L. 89-97, § 308(d)(9), 79 Stat. 379; Act of Jan. 2, 1976, Pub. L. 94-202, §4, 89 Stat. 1136; Act of June 9,1980, Pub. L. 96-265, § 305(a), 94 Stat. 457; Act of Jan. 12,1983, Pub. L. 97-455, § 4, 96 Stat. 2499; Social Security Amendments of 1983, Pub. L. 98-21, §§ 301(d)(1), 309(i)(l), 97 Stat. Ill, 117.

 See, e. g., H. R. Conf. Rep. No. 96-944, p. 59 (1980) (Conference Report accompanying Social Security Disability Amendments of 1980, noting without criticism that in the absence of a statutory time limit on adjudication of claims, several District Courts had imposed such limits at the hearing level).
Cases in which federal courts presented with unreasonable delays by the Secretary have imposed deadlines include Sharpe v. Harris, 621 F. 2d 530 (CA2 1980) (affirming time limits in Supplemental Security Income (SSI) hearings, decisions, and payments to New York State class); Blankenship v. Secretary of HEW, 587 F. 2d 329 (CA6 1978), on remand, 532 F.Supp. 739 (WD Ky. 1982), aff’d in part, stayed in part, 722 F. 2d 1282 (1983) (per curiam) (Title II and SSI claimants’ hearings must be held within 180 days; those whose benefits have been terminated have right to decision from Appeals Council within 90 days; order of interim payments after 180-day delay stayed pending decision in the present ease), stayed, 465 U. S. 1301 (1984); Caswell v. Califano, 583 F. 2d 9 (CA1 1978) (90-day limit from request to hearing for Maine Title II claimants); Barnett v. Califano, 580 F. 2d 28 (CA2 1978) (order applicable to Vermont SSI disability claimants, requiring hearings in most cases within 90 days of request); White v. Mathews, 559 F. 2d 852 (CA2 1977) (Connecticut disability claimants entitled to hearing and final decision within 120 days; 1-year phase-in of time limit; interim payment of benefits ordered), cert. denied, 435 U. S. 908 (1978); Chagnon v. Schweiker, 560 F. Supp. 71 (Vt. 1982) (Secretary ordered to provide disability and SSI payments to those found eligible within 60 days after determination of eligibility by an ALJ or the Appeals Coun*127cil); Crosby v. Social Security Administration, 550 F. Supp. 1278 (Mass. 1982) (Title II and SSI disability claimants have right to a decision within 180 days of request for a hearing (plus time attributable to specified reasonable causes for delay) and to award of interim benefits if deadline not met), appeal pending, No. 83-1077 (CA1). But see Wright v. Califano, 587 F. 2d 345 (CA7 1978) (reversing order to phase in time limits for review of disputed old-age and survivors’ benefits claims, finding delays not so unreasonable as to justify court’s exercise of equitable power).

 The only congressional suggestion of disapproval of court-ordered timely hearings that the majority has cited, ante, at 114-115, and n. 25, when read in context, supports only the inference that Congress chose not to “assert its power to give the district courts more specific direction,” White v. Mathews, supra, at 861. If the Committee’s remarks are at all germane to our discussion, then it is surely relevant that the Committee reported favorably on a proposed amendment to the Social Security Act that would have limited courts’ injunctive authority in remedying delay, an amendment that Congress chose not to enact. H. R. 6181, § 10, 97th Cong., 2d Sess. (1982). Moreover, in expressing its disapproval of the Blankenship decision, see ante at 115, and n. 25, the Committee appeared to distinguish that decision, which involved a nationwide remedial order, from six other court orders which “apply only in the areas under the jurisdiction of the court.” H. R. Rep. No. 97-588, p. 19 (1982). Finally, the Committee’s concern that strict time limits “could result in incorrect determinations because time was not available to obtain needed medical evidence or to reach well-reasoned decisions,” id., at 20, is accommodated in the present case by the tolling provisions in the District Court’s order and by the absence of any time limits on the rendering of hearing decisions.
In fact, since the District Court’s order, Congress can be said to have endorsed the courts’ conclusion that claimants should not bear the entire burden of delay by the Secretary. The 97th Congress substantially enhanced the protection of persons, like respondents Day and Maurais, who have been receiving Title II benefits but whom the Secretary determines are no longer disabled within the meaning of the SSA. If they appeal the Secretary’s initial determination, they may elect to continue to receive payments during the pendency of the appeal, subject to return of any overpayment. Act of Jan. 12, 1983, Pub. L. 97-455, §2, 96 Stat. 2498, 42 U. S. C. § 423(g). The Senate Committee Report explained that “some emergency relief is warranted for workers who are having benefits terminated by State agencies and then — in more than half the cases appealed— *128having their benefits reinstated by an ALJ.” S. Rep. No. 97-648, p. 6 (1982). Although passed as an interim measure expiring in June 1984, the 98th Congress has moved to make continuation of benefits permanent. The Social Security Disability Benefits Reform Act of 1984, H. R. 3755, §223(g), 98th Cong., 2d Sess. (1984), has passed the House and has been read twice in the Senate. See also Brief for the Alliance of Social Security Disability Recipients et al. as Amici Curiae.

 Had the Secretary adopted mandatory time limits pursuant to her rule-making authority, and was now facing a challenge rather than bringing one, I have no doubt that she would be citing this same legislative history for the proposition that Congress thought time limits consistent with the Social Security Act. Cf. Heckler v. Campbell, 461 U. S. 458 (1983). In Campbell, the Court upheld the Secretary’s reliance on medical-vocational guidelines, noting that since amending the Social Security Act to provide for disability benefits in 1954, Congress repeatedly suggested that the Secretary adopt rules defining the criteria for evaluating disability. “While these sources do not establish the original congressional intent, they indicate that later Congresses perceived that regulations such as the guidelines would be consistent with the statute.” Id., at 466, n. 10. The same inferences are available to the Court in the present case.

 See, e. g., Pub. L. 96-265, §308, 94 Stat. 458, note following 42 U. S. C. § 401. The Social Security Disability Amendments of 1980 required the Secretary to report to Congress “recommending the establishment of appropriate time limitations governing decisions on claims for benefits under title II of the Social Security Act. . . tak[ing] into account both the need for expeditious processing. . . and the need to assure that all such claims will be thoroughly considered and accurately determined.”

 See, e. g., H. R. Rep. No. 94-679, p. 2 (1975) (relying on agency’s estimate that a limited reform bill could reduce hearing backlog by 3,000 cases a month “so that in 18 months cases can be adjudicated within 90 days”); S. Rep. No. 94-550, p. 3 (1975) (same); Delays in Social Security Appeals, Hearings before Subcommittee on Social Security of the House Committee on Ways and Means, 94th Cong., 1st Sess., 74 (1975) (assurances of SSA Commissioner Cardwell that backlog could be brought under control and hearings scheduled within 90 days of request by June 1977).
The Secretary has given similar assurances in litigating challenges to delays in the review process. See, e. g., Sharpe v. Harris, 621 F. 2d, at 531; White v. Mathews, 434 F. Supp. 1252, 1256-1257 (Conn. 1976), aff’d, 559 F. 2d 852 (CA2 1977); Crosby v. Social Security Administration, supra, at 1282. In the present case, the Secretary opposed the plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment on the issue of liability in part on the ground that she was ready to issue regulations setting 90-day hearing deadlines, and the court should therefore abstain. App. to Pet. for Cert. 18a-19a.

 Subcommittee on Social Security of the House Committee on Ways and Means, Status of the Disability Insurance Program, 97th Cong., 1st Sess., 45-46 (Comm. Print 1981) (hereinafter 1981 Comm. Print) (response of Social Security Commissioner Driver to Rep. Pickle). The proposed rulemaking set a 90-day limit on hearings, subject to exceptions very similar to the nine exceptions in the present case, and required that hearing decisions issue within 30 days after a hearing is held and the record closed. 45 Fed. Reg. 12838-12839 (1980). Reporting to Congress 10 months later, the Secretary recommended 150 days from application for reconsideration to decision, and 165 days from request for a hearing to issuing a decision, because experience had indicated that, nationwide, the agency could provide hearings within 90 days only in about 70% of the cases, and issue decisions within 30 days in about 80% of the cases. U. S. Dept, of Health and Human Services, Report to Congress, Implementation of Section 308, Public Law 96-265 (Oct. 21, 1980), reprinted in 1981 Comm. Print, at 43.
Whether Congress might have acted affirmatively but for the Secretary’s assurances is a matter for conjecture, but it is as valid an inference as the majority’s inference that Congress’ failure to enact nationwide deadlines, or to order the Secretary to do so pursuant to her rulemaking authority, is an affirmative rejection of the proposition that a claimant’s § 205(b) right to a timely hearing should be effectuated through promulgation of time limits.

 The Secretary hypothesized four categories of reasons for not scheduling hearings within 90 days: lack of claimant cooperation in providing necessary information; delay in response from medical sources cited by the *133claimant; logistical and scheduling problems due to distant travel; and agency assistance to claimants in obtaining complex and specialized medical development. Answers to Interrogatories Nos. 23, 24, App. 52. The Secretary provided no evidence that any of these reasons caused delays in scheduling the class representatives’ hearings.

 Midway through the litigation, the court found the record “devoid of information concerning the reasons why the delays occurred. The plaintiffs have recognized that there will be times when the delay is either requested by the recipients to enable them to provide additional information or is caused by the recipients’ failure to cooperate with the Secretary’s requests. Similarly, the Secretary has acknowledged that delays may have been the result of increased case-load or insufficient staffing. It is clear, then, that the record is inconclusive with respect to the reasonableness of the delays. And since the reasonableness of the delays is the prime question before the court, the motions for summary judgment must be denied.” Memorandum Decision of July 14, 1980, App. 99-100. Only after continued discovery did the court rule that delays beyond 90 days were unreasonable. App. to Pet. for Cert. 28a-29a.

 In response to plaintiffs’ third request for interrogatories, seeking the data demanded by Judge Holden, the Secretary chose to submit 77 randomly selected disability reconsideration cases selected by her from a total of 453 reconsiderations performed between October 1, 1977, and January 31, 1980. Defendant’s Answers to Third Interrogatories, Mar. 30, 1981, App. 105-149, 193-195.

 The significance we place on the reversal rate must be tempered by the fact that the administrative appeals process permits introduction of additional evidence of disability at each stage. Therefore, a denial of disability status at one stage could well have been “correct” based on the evidence available to the decisionmaker. Cf. Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U. S. 319, 346-347 (1976). Nonetheless, the fact remains that hundreds of disabled Vermonters endure grave hardship because they do not receive entitlements during the delayed review process. The Government has an obligation to the rightful beneficiaries of its insurance program. Members of the plaintiff class were once workers, paying into the Social Security system for the required number of years to earn entitlement to income when disabling illness or accident keeps them from the workplace.