Frank Bisignano testifies before the Senatorial Finance Committee on his appointment to be a commissioner of the Social Security Administration, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on March 25, 2025.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty images
President Donald Trump's candidate to direct the Social Security AdministrationFrank Bisignano was faced on Tuesday with senators' questions about how it was involved in recent changes to the Agency of the Ministry of Effectiveness of the Government.
The unofficial government entity Known as Doge was charged by the White House to eliminate waste, fraud and abuses in the federal government, including the Social Security Administration, which provides payments of services to millions of Americans each month.
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Depending on the changes put in place by DOGE, including staff cuts and plans to close offices on the groundThe telephone lines of the Social Security Administration often remain unanswered, the website crashes and “the elders are lost in the system,” said senator Ron Wyden, D-eargon, a classification member of the Senate Committee Finance.
The hearing, Wyden said, provides Bisignano, CEO of Financial Payments Technology Company ProudTo “say to the American people of which they are the side” – the side of American workers or “bureaucracy”.
Proud Moves 250 million payments per day worth 2.5 billions of dollars, Bisignano said on Tuesday. Social Security Administration manages approximately 74 million payments per month, he said.
If he is confirmed, Bisignano will be responsible for the main administration of Social Security, which has a “critical mission and numerous operational and customer service challenges,” said the president of the Senate finance committee, Mike Crapo, R-daho.
“I am convinced that you are up to the task,” said Crapo in Bisignano at the hearing.
Whistleblower says that the candidate will be “bad for the agency”
During the hearing, Wyden presented a declaration of an unidentified “very high level” civil servant to the Social Security Administration who declared that Bisignano insisted to approve several key hiring from the agency and obtain frequent briefings.
“This denunciator said that he is a candidate who will be bad for the agency and quoted details,” said Wyden, who represented the anonymous person as “someone who said the truth” in their careers.
In response, Bisignano said that he had never spoken with Lee Dudek, who is currently the acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration. Bisignano said he knew Michael Russo, who is currently information director at Social Security Administration, through previous roles.
“I do not know him as a Dogee; I know him as an IOC,” said Bisignano.
When he is pressed by Wyden to confirm that he would “lock Doge” from social security databases, Bisignano said that he did not know what the term “Lock Doge out” means.
“I'm going to do everything you need to protect information from private information,” said Bisignano.
On March 20, the federal judge Ellen Lipton Hollander published a temporary prohibition order This prevented access to information personally identifiable with the Social Security Administration. She also told Doge's affiliates to delete such information currently in their possession.
This includes social security numbers, information on medical providers, medical and mental health processing files, employers' payment files, employee profits, addresses, bank files and tax information.
In a February interview CNBCBisignano said that it was planning “100%” to work with DOGE to identify waste, fraud and potential abuses at the agency.
“I am fundamentally a Dogene,” said Bisignano when he appeared CNBC.
When he was asked to clarify this comment during the hearing of the Senate on Tuesday, Bisignano said that he had prioritized efficiency before there was a word like Doge.
Bisignano also said that he would not knowingly authorize the personally identifiable information to be consulted by unauthorized personnel.
The denunciator is concerned about the actions of the agency “harm the elderly”
In the written declaration, the non -disclosed denunciator, who identifies himself as a “principal employee of the social security administration who recently left the agency,” said that they feared that the agency's recent actions have a negative impact on millions of Americans.
Bisignano frequently talked to SSA senior executives and was personally informed of “SSA key operations, staff and management decisions”, according to the denunciator.
As an unconfirmed candidate, Bisignano asked that senior executives will not hire anyone without their approval, according to the whistleblower.
Bisignano personally appointed Russo and frequently talked to him about the agency's operations, according to the denunciator in their declaration. He was also directly involved in the integration of lawyer Mark Steffenson, Scott Coulter and the engineer Doge Akash Bobba, writes the denunciator.
Bisignano was also aware of the concerns about wide access to data for DOGE employees who had been requested and that he did not follow the laws on confidentiality, disclosure policies and controls of internal agencies, denunciation states.
The denunciator included a list of 19 people, including Dudek, Russo and the former interim commissioner Michelle King, who, according to them, can verify their declarations.
“Frank Bisignano is not in the agency (social security) and is not involved in any decision-making at the agency,” said Arjun Mcy, a Trump's transition manager by email.
The Social Security Administration did not immediately respond to the request for CNBC comments.
