President Trump’s nominee to run the Social Security Administration, Frank Bisignano, faced questions about customer service, erroneous payments and concerns about potential interests in privatizing the agency during a Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday.
Some Senators also tried to nail down Bisignano’s stance on efforts by the Elon Musk-helmed Department of Government Efficiency‘s (DOGE) efforts to cut costs at the agency by firing workers and closing offices. They also asked him point blank if he’d block DOGE workers from accessing Americans’ personally identifiable information.
Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, pointed to a March 24 statement from a former senior SSA employee who claims that Bisignano has already been coordinating with DOGE despite not yet being confirmed as commissioner. The statement also alleges that Bisignano discussed hiring DOGE employees with SSA personnel.
“While Mr. Bisignano was the unconfirmed nominee to lead the Social Security Administration, he frequently spoke with senior SSA executives and was personally briefed on key SSA operations, personnel and management decisions,” the letter from the former SSA employee claimed.
Under questioning by Wyden, Bisignano said during the hearing that he had not, between the time he was nominated in December and Tuesday, March 25, been involved in discussions with DOGE.
The Social Security Administration delivers more than $1.6 trillion annually in benefits to 70 million seniors, disabled people and children, with the monthly benefit checks providing a major source of retirement income to many older Americans. At the same time, Social Security is facing a potential financial crunch, with the program set to cut benefits starting in 2035 because its spending is outpacing income.
Here’s what Bisignano said during the hearing.
Who is Frank Bisignano?
Bisignano has served as the chief executive of Fiserv, a financial technology company, since July 2020. Under his leadership, Fiserv’s stock price has more than doubled, while the company reported revenue of $20.5 billion for the year ended Dec. 31 2024, up from roughly $15 billion in 2020.
Prior to serving as CEO of Fiserv, he was the chairman and CEO of First Data Corp., and oversaw the merger of First Data and Fiserv in 2019. Earlier in his career, Bisignano worked as co-chief operating officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co., and had also previously held senior positions at Citigroup.
What does Bisignano say about Social Security?
In an interview with CNBC in February, Bisignano said he views Social Security as both a technology and services organization, while pledging not to make any changes that affect the level of benefits.
“The objective isn’t to touch benefits,” Bisignano told CNBC. “The objective is there is going to be fraud, waste and abuse in there,” adding that he views himself as “fundamentally a DOGE person.”
During Tuesday’s hearing, the executive also said he plans to use artificial intelligence to identify and weed out fraud, waste or abuse within the system. He repeatedly referred to the current 1% payments error rate, which he said he believes is “five decimal places too high.” He added that he plans to “focus on what we need to do to drive the 1% error rate down.”
Bisignano said part of that effort will start with what he described as an unsatisfied workforce at the agency.
“My objective is to come in and motivate the workforce we have … to be able to get our job right the first time for the American public,” Bisignano said in response to questioning.
Mr. Trump and Musk have claimed on social media and in press briefings that people who are well over 100 years old are improperly and routinely drawing benefits from Social Security, a claim that has been refuted by the acting Social Security Administration commissioner.
The program also automatically stops payments to people who are older than 115 years old, an agency rule that has been in effect since September 2015.
On protecting Americans’ data
A key concern among some Social Security recipients and lawmakers is the potential exposure of millions of Americans’ personal data after DOGE employees accessed the agency’s systems. Bisignano claimed he is committed to protecting that data.
When Sen. Wyden asked Bisignano if he would “lock DOGE out of databases” that workers have accessed, the nominee said that personally identifiable information “will not be exposed.”
“I am going to do whatever is required to protect the information,” he said.
On privatization and agency cuts
Bisignano repeatedly said he had not thought about privatizing the agency, responding to a suggestion from Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, that the Trump administration’s aim is to discredit the system and then send in “tech bros and private equity folks” to “save” it.
Bisignano did not explicitly commit to opposing such a scheme, but rather answered that “my job is to ensure claims are processed in the manner they should be.”
“I’ve only been given one order, which is to run the agency in the right fashion,” Mr. Bisignano said.
Regarding customer service enhancements, Bisignano stressed the importance of meeting beneficiaries where they are, such as by providing customer service via phone as well as in person and online. He also touted his company’s experience handling 400 million phone calls per year, compared to the estimated 80 million calls that SSA fields annually.
