Frank Vignano, presidential candidate who runs the Social Security Agency (SSA), He vowed to crack down on fraud To protect American personal data at Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday. He also rejected a proposal to help privatize federal agencies that provide retirement, disability and other benefits to more than 70 million Americans.
Like other government agencies, SSA targets major recruitment at Elon Musk’s Government Efficiency Bureau (Doge), a reduction in the power of warnings from former agency officials and other experts could significantly hinder the provision of services to Social Security recipients.
In February, SSA announced it would cut 7,000 of its 57,000 workers. Martin O’Malley, a former SSA committee member who led the agency under the Biden administration from December 2023 to November 2024, said the actual number was Nearly 10,000 workers.
Who is Frank Vignano?
Even before taking office in January, Trump announced the nomination of Bisignano, CEO of Financial Technology Company Fiserv, calling him a business leader for his “a incredible track record of transforming large companies.” In a social media post, Trump emphasized that Vignano “emphas highlighted his long career leading financial services institutions through major transformations.”
Bisignano has been the CEO of Fiserv since July 2020, and the company has experienced strong growth during its tenure. Fiserv’s stock price, which was about $100 when Bisignano took the helm, has more than doubled since. The company increased its revenue of $20.5 billion for the year ended December 31, 2024 from approximately $15 billion in 2020.
Previously, Bisignano led Fiserv’s 2019 merger with First Data Corp. He has been Chairman and CEO since 2013. He has been praised in Bio for turning his payment processor into a “technology innovator.”
Before reading the first data, Bisignano was Jpmorgan Chase & Co. He has a career on Wall Street as co-executive director, and previously held senior positions at Citigroup.
What are the potential concerns about the SSA that leads Bisignano?
In a letter to Vignano on March 23, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden – members of both Senate Committee considering his nomination, Continuous cost reduction efforts at our agency.
“We’ve written concerns about the ongoing efforts of the Trump administration (in collaboration with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to send out the Social Security Agency (SSA) to take away the Social Security benefits Americans are gaining and needing,” the lawmaker wrote. “Recently, SSA officials have been cutting thousands of agency jobs at the same time, and closing dozens of social security offices while increasing efforts to undermine the program, imposing burdensome management requirements on beneficiaries.”
Trump on the 2024 campaign trail I promised not to touch The Social Security program provides monthly financial payments to approximately one American.
Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, also want to pledge to Vignano not privatize some of their Social Security.
“Already, financial services companies are spitting on the possibility of profiting from Americans’ hard-earned retirement benefits,” the lawmaker said in their letter. “Even your own payment company, even Fiserv, which “enables money movement for thousands of financial institutions and millions of people,” can theoretically form the privatization of social security. ”
By contrast, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Krapo and Idaho Republicans said in a statement in March that Vignano’s private sector experience would “have him very qualified for future jobs.”
In him Senate confirmation hearing On Tuesday, Vignano responded to a proposal from Sen. Sheldon White House, a Democrat from Rhode Island, repeatedly saying that he has not repeatedly thought that the Trump administration’s purpose is to “save” “hi-tech brothers and private equity people” after trusting the system.
When Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, asked Bisignano if he would “lock out Doge from the database” that workers accessed, the candidate said that personally identifiable information would not be publicly disclosed.
“I’m going to do whatever it takes to protect the information,” he said.
Although Vignano did not expressly commit to opposing such a scheme, he replied, “My job is to ensure that the claims are handled in the way they should be.”
What should senior advocates say?
Some advocacy groups representing older Americans are also questioning whether Vignano is the right person to lead the SSA.
“Vignano’s experience in the private sector could bring new ideas to SSA. Still, I’m worried if he’s really ready to handle the complexities of such important public services,” the nonprofit advocate for benefits (TSCL) told CBS MoneyWatch.
“Does he fully understand the struggles of many Social Security Beneficiaries or lead to their challenges? That’s something we haven’t seen yet,” said Shannon Benton, executive director of TSCL. “The key issue is finding the right balance between introducing new ideas and protecting Social Security as an essential public program.”
After Bisignano was appointed in December, the Alliance of Retired Americans, an advocacy organization founded by the AFL-CIO, also raised questions about their lack of experience dealing with social services for seniors and disabled people.
“Nothing suggested in Mr. Visignano’s career suggests that he understands the unique needs of seniors and Americans with disabilities. His records in the private sector do not instill confidence that he will protect beneficiaries from plans to dismantle and replace the SSA workforce with AI chatbots,” said Richard Fiesta, executive director of the alliance.
