Brushing aside pleas from one of the most powerful Democrats in the Congress, the Social Security Administration plans to close its Bristol office on Nov. 2.
U.S. Rep. John Larson, an East Hartford Democrat whose district includes Bristol, said he is “utterly disappointed” in the decision to shutter the Social Security office on North Main Street that serves thousands of residents annually.
Larson said, though, that he’s not throwing in the towel.
“The entire delegation is together on this and we plan to continue fighting,” Larson said in a prepared statement. “This isn’t over.”
City, state and federal politicians rallied a year ago to block plans to close the Bristol office, succeeding in keeping the office open an extra 10 months.
In May, two congressmen and Connecticut’s two senators lobbied Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue to leave the Bristol office open rather than shifting its handful of employees to a larger site in New Britain.
At the time, they won a promise that the city’s Social Security office would not close “in the near term,” but the lawmakers said that for it to remain open permanently would require they find money in the budget to keep its doors open.
Larson said he learned Friday that the office is now slated to close in little more than a month, on Nov 2.
“I am utterly disappointed in the commissioner’s decision to close the Bristol Social Security field office, especially after all of the effort put in not only by us but the entire Bristol community,” Larson said.
“In Congress, we achieved an increase over the President’s requested budget for the Social Security Administration,” he said.
“I am dismayed that the president continues to say he will veto this budget, putting so much strain on our country’s seniors,” said Larson, the fourth highest ranking Democrat in the House.
“On the merits, we made the case and thought we had a good faith agreement that when we increased the budget request, we should have been able to keep the office open,” Larson said.
The Social Security office is located in the old New Departure building at 225 North Main St.
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Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
8 comments:
What about Joe Lieberman? I guess he is too busy trying to start a war with Iran. Meanwhile, Chris Dodd is fighting for 10th place in the Presidential election.
another reason to hate this Democrat Congress and Bush.
Congressman Larson just called to let me know there will be a press conference at City Hall at 10 a.m. to talk about the planned Social Security office closure.
Rep. Larson said that he phoned U.S. Sens. Joe Lieberman and Chris Dodd to let them know of the decision. He said they have all been fighting to put the funding in place to keep the Bristol office open.
I'm not sure who will be at the es conference tomorrow. Both Larson and Democratic mayoral candidate Art Ward said they've been contacting all sorts of officials to spread the word so I imagine there will be quite a few there.
Since I'm off on Saturday, I won't be there. But if anyone goes and wants to tell us all what's said, feel free to post here. Thanks.
Lieberman wants billions of dollars to fight in Iraq and his war with Iran would cost billions more, yet he can't secure a few pennies for the Bristol office from his pal George Bush?
Excellent. Now the Zoning Commission can put a pharmacy over there. We really need one in that part of town.
We have a Connecticut Congressional delegation controlled by Democrats, a Senate controlled by Democrats, a House of Representatives controlled by Democrats, a lame duck Republican President and these Democrats can't keep a local SS office open in the one of the largest cities in Connecticut. Yup, keep voting for those Democrats.
Larson, Murphy and Dodd knew darn well this was a lost cause months ago, but they pandered to the seniors and their next spin press release will state how they tried to save this office from the proverbial axe.
It was doomed the day the Social Security Administration announced it would close. Possibly Nancy Johnson's clout in Congress would have won the day, but she had to go.
Art Ward will step in and take care of it. He's a veteran so they'll listen to him.
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