Frank Bisignano testifies earlier than the Senate Finance Committee on his nomination to be Commissioner of the Social Safety Administration, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, March 25, 2025.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Pictures
The Senate has voted to verify Frank Bisignano as the brand new commissioner of the Social Safety Administration, ushering in new management at a federal company that has already undergone many adjustments this yr underneath the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency.
Bisignano, the chairman and CEO of funds and monetary know-how firm Fiserv Inc., was nominated to function Social Safety commissioner in December by then President-elect Donald Trump. Trump began his second time period on Jan. 20.
The Social Safety Administration, which supplies month-to-month profit checks to more than 73 million beneficiaries, is presently working underneath short-term management. Performing commissioner Leland Dudek took the helm in February, changing Michelle King, who stepped down from the short-term position because of considerations about DOGE’s entry to delicate knowledge.
A federal choose has since granted a preliminary injunction that stops DOGE from accessing personally identifiable data together with Social Safety numbers, medical information, addresses, financial institution information, tax data and different delicate knowledge.
Bisignano’s affirmation vote on Tuesday was divided by get together strains. Previous to the vote, Republicans had expressed help for Trump’s nominee, whereas Democrats raised considerations about Bisignano’s potential management and his alleged ties to DOGE.
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On the eve of the Senate affirmation vote, Democrats together with Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Ron Wyden of Oregon held a rally outdoors the Senate constructing to oppose Bisignano’s nomination.
“We wish Donald Trump to face with working households and seniors and cease the assault on Social Safety as soon as and for all,” Wyden, rating member of the Senate Finance Committee, mentioned on the Monday occasion.
Following the Tuesday Senate vote, advocacy teams expressed concern concerning the new company management.
“This vote was a chance for the Senate to reject the decimation of Social Safety, and demand that Trump nominate a commissioner who will cease the bleeding,” Nancy Altman, president of Social Safety Works, mentioned in a press release. “As a substitute, each Senate Republican simply signed off on the DOGE destruction of Social Safety.”
Neither Fiserv nor the White Home responded to CNBC’s requests for remark by press time.
Who’s Frank Bisignano?
Bisignano presently serves as chairman and CEO of Fiserv, which processes greater than $2.5 trillion in funds per day, in keeping with his Senate testimony.
Bisignano got here to that position after serving as chairman and CEO of First Information Corp., which went public in 2015 and mixed with Fiserv in 2019.
Earlier than that, Bisignano was co-chief working officer for JPMorgan Chase and CEO of its mortgage banking unit. Previous to JPMorgan Chase, he held a number of roles at Citigroup.
Bisignano was raised in a working class, multigenerational immigrant family in Brooklyn, New York, in keeping with his Senate testimony. Bisignano’s father was a 46-year Division of Treasury worker who labored in customs enforcement.
“He was the toughest working particular person I’ve recognized,” Bisignano mentioned in his Senate testimony. “I view federal employees from that vantage level.”
What lawmakers mentioned about Bisignano’s nomination
In the course of the consideration of Bisignano’s nomination, Democrats repeatedly raised considerations about his viability to guide the company.
Warren and Wyden sent a letter to Bisignano forward of his March affirmation listening to to ask about his views on privatizing the company. The efforts by DOGE to “hole out” the company and “deprive People of Social Safety advantages they earned and wish” might pave the best way for a “personal sector repair,” the Democratic leaders mentioned.
In his Senate testimony, Bisignano mentioned he didn’t intend to denationalise the company.
“I’ve by no means thought of privatizing,” Bisignano mentioned. “It is not a phrase that anyone’s ever talked to me about. I do not see this establishment as something apart from a authorities company that will get run for the American public.”
In the course of the Senate listening to, Bisignano additionally confronted questions on his involvement with current adjustments on the Social Safety Administration and with DOGE.
Wyden introduced an nameless whistleblower letter from a “senior Social Safety Administration worker who not too long ago left the company,” who mentioned Bisignano had been briefed on “key SSA operations, personnel and administration selections.”
In response to a query about whether or not he would “lock DOGE out,” Bisignano promised to guard personally identifiable data.
“I’m going to do no matter is required to guard the data that’s personal,” Bisignano mentioned.
Nonetheless, throughout a February CNBC interview, Bisignano mentioned he’s “basically a DOGE particular person.”
Whereas Democrats have forged doubt on Bisignano’s nomination, the Fiserv CEO has obtained reward from Republicans and former Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill.
In a March CNBC interview, Weill praised Bisignano as a “nice supervisor” and “terrific particular person.”
“He used to work for me, and I believe he is the perfect operations particular person I’ve ever met in my life,” Weill mentioned, including we might be “very fortunate to have him in that job.”
What Bisignano has mentioned about Social Safety
Throughout a March Senate confirmation hearing, as he fielded questions from senators on a number of points dealing with the Social Safety Administration, Bisignano mentioned will probably be necessary to “put the beneficiaries first.”
“The power to obtain funds on time and precisely is job one,” Bisignano mentioned.
Among the many priorities Bisignano mentioned he would emphasize if confirmed embody bringing the Social Safety’s error price down, citing an Workplace of the Inspector Normal report that put it at round 1%.
“That is a really excessive cost processing error price,” Bisignano mentioned, calling it “5 decimal locations too excessive.”
Decreasing the company’s error price will assist get rid of overpayment issues, the place beneficiaries obtain an excessive amount of cash of their profit checks. These errors, which can take months or years to catch, usually go away beneficiaries owing massive sums to the Social Safety Administration.
From fiscal years 2015 by way of 2022, the Social Safety Administration paid about $71.8 billion in improper funds out of virtually $8.6 trillion in advantages, representing about 0.84%, in keeping with a 2024 Workplace of the Inspector Normal report.
The company is presently within the technique of adjusting the default withholding price to 50% for sure advantages affected by overpayments, equivalent to retirement, survivors and incapacity insurance coverage. Beneath President Joe Biden, the default price had been lowered to 10% of month-to-month advantages or $10, whichever was better.
“I will be sure that we get well all the cash we must always get well, however alternatively we’ve to be people within the course of, too,” Bisignano instructed the Senate about overpayment clawbacks.
Bisignano additionally mentioned he deliberate to cut back the chronically lengthy wait instances People face when in search of assist from the company, together with when calling its 800 quantity or when making use of for incapacity advantages.
Having to attend for greater than 20 minutes on the cellphone just isn’t acceptable, Bisignano mentioned. Social Safety Administration knowledge reveals solely about 46% of calls get answered, doubtless as a result of folks get discouraged and grasp up, he mentioned.
“I believe we may get that to underneath a minute,” Bisignano mentioned of the company’s cellphone wait instances, partly by making AI accessible to folks answering the telephones to extra shortly immediate them with the data they should reply people’ queries.
Bisignano additionally promised to analyze why it takes a lot time to course of incapacity purposes. Preliminary eligibility determinations presently take around seven months, a wait time that has doubled since previous to the Covid-19 pandemic, in keeping with the City Institute.
