Frank Bisignano, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Social Security Administration (SSA), has come under scrutiny over his connections to a federal downsizing initiative that has prompted widespread office closures, phone service cutbacks and layoffs.
During a contentious Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday, lawmakers pressed him over his past statements and future intentions amid concerns about how the changes could impact the roughly 72 million Americans who rely on the program for retirement and disability benefits.
While Bisignano insisted he would not reduce services, critics argued that many of the agency’s recent changes already amount to functional benefit cuts for vulnerable populations.
Who Is Frank Bisignano?
Bisignano is a longtime Wall Street executive who has served as chairman of financial services technology firm Fiserv since 2022. He previously led First Data Corporation and held leadership positions at JPMorgan Chase.
His business background has drawn praise from some Republicans who argue his operational experience could help modernize the agency.
“If confirmed, you will be responsible for leading an agency with a critical mission, and numerous operational and customer service challenges,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho). “Based on your background, I am confident you are up to the task.”
What did Frank Bisignano Say About Social Security Cuts?
During the hearing, Senator Elizabeth Warren described a hypothetical scenario where a senior citizen with limited mobility or internet access is turned away from a shuttered field office. She then asked: “Isn’t that a benefit cut?”
Bisignano responded: “I have no intent to have anything like that happen under my watch.”
Warren pressed further, asking whether someone who is delayed in getting benefits due to lack of service, and thus loses out on $5,000 they can never recover, has experienced a cut.
“I don’t know what to call it…. I’d call it a horrible situation,” Bisignano replied, according to The Washington Post.
The SSA currently serves approximately 72.5 million Americans. In recent months, the agency has begun laying off 7,000 employees, closing field offices and mandating in-person identity checks—changes that have drawn criticism from lawmakers and advocacy groups.
Nancy Altman, president of social welfare organization Social Security Works, said the hearing “showed that Frank Bisignano is not the cure to the DOGE-manufactured chaos at the Social Security Administration. In fact, he is part of it and, if confirmed, would make it even worse,” according to the Associated Press (AP).
Republican Senator Steve Daines, of Montana, said a staffer tested the agency’s main phone line and was disconnected twice before holding for an hour on the third try, only to be cut off again. “They could have at least had Olivia Newton-John or some ’70s music… You can’t make this up,” he said, per the Post.
What Did Frank Bisignano Say About DOGE?
Bisignano has previously called himself “fundamentally a DOGE person,” referring to the Department of Government Efficiency—a Trump-backed initiative led by Elon Musk to shrink government spending.
At Tuesday’s hearing, he distanced himself from DOGE’s operational influence. When asked about Michael Russo, the SSA’s chief information officer, he said, “I don’t know him as a DOGE person, I know him as a CIO,” per the Post.
He also said that he has had “no contact” with DOGE’s cost-cutting team. That claim was disputed by Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, of Oregon, who said a senior agency official informed him Bisignano had “frequent” contact with Russo and personally appointed him. Two other sources told the Post that Russo “spoke multiple times a day” with Bisignano about agency operations.
Bisignano did not respond directly to allegations that he helped DOGE software engineer Akash Bobba gain access to internal Social Security data systems.
He did say he supports using artificial intelligence to improve service and called the agency’s 1 percent error rate in benefits delivery “way too high.” “If you think of that type of error rate running through the agency, it creates more problems than we need,” he said, per the Post.
Democratic Senator Tina Smith, of Minnesota, declined to ask questions during the hearing. “This is a travesty,” she said, per AP. “This is a wholesale effort to dismantle Social Security from the inside out.”
Read the full article here
