Trump's Social Security pick vows to protect agency from DOGE

President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Social Security Administration on Tuesday billed himself as an “efficiency guy” and said he’s given no thought to privatizing the agency, which has become a prime target of Elon Musk’s dramatic cost-cutting crusade. 

Frank Bisignano, a financial technology executive, faced tough questions from Senate Democrats concerned that the Department of Government Efficiency’s downsizing efforts at the agency could lead to privatizing it and ultimately impede the distribution of retirement, survivor and disability benefits to more than 70 million Americans. 

“I’ve never thought about privatizing. It’s not a word that anybody’s ever talked to me about,” he told the Senate Finance Committee. “And I don’t see this institution as anything other than a government agency that gets run for the benefit of the American public.”

Senator Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Finance Committee, warned that Musk, who has likened Social Security to a “Ponzi scheme”, threatens to destroy the benefit. 

“The DOGE crowd is breaking a sacred promise to deliver Americans their earned Social Security benefits,” Wyden said. “Today’s hearing is going to be an opportunity for our nominee to tell the American people: whose side is he on?” 

“I believe it’s a promise to pay,” Bisignano said in response to a question about Musk calling the benefits program a Ponzi scheme. “It’s an 89-year institution so far. It will continue.”

The agency has faced turmoil under the acting administrator Leland Dudek, a DOGE ally who was promoted after the former head resigned over concerns about Musk’s group access to the agency’s private databases. 

Just last week, Dudek threatened to shut down the office after a federal judge restricted DOGE’s access to sensitive personal data on Social Security beneficiaries. He later backed down.

This week, the agency also installed Scott Coulter, the agency’s DOGE team lead and a hedge fund manager, as Social Security’s chief information officer, according to a message from Dudek to employees seen by Bloomberg News. The agency did not immediately respond to a request to comment.

The Social Security Administration is currently cutting its phone services, a move that advocates have argued could cripple the agency and make benefits inaccessible to disabled and elderly recipients. Bisignano, however, sought to assure senators that would not happen. 

“We will meet beneficiaries where they want to be met, whether in person, in field offices, on the web or on the phone,” Bisignano said. “On the phone, I’m committed to reducing wait times and providing beneficiaries with a better experience. Waiting 20 minutes plus to get an answer will be of yester-year.” 

Musk has deployed at least 10 DOGE staffers to the agency in the effort to identify waste and abuse. But the data does not support claims of widespread fraud: from 2015 through 2022, Social Security estimated that it made almost $72 billion in improper payments — less than 1% of benefits paid, according to an inspector general report last year.

Bisignano, most recently the president of financial technology company Fiserv and a former JPMorgan Chase executive, on Tuesday pledged to “get the error rate down.” 

Trump has vowed to protect Social Security and continue distributing benefits. But critics are concerned that mass layoffs and substantial changes to payment processes will impede its work. 

Senator Mike Crapo, the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, expressed support for DOGE’s efforts but asked Bisignano to “take a thoughtful, measured and data-driven approach” and stay in touch with the committee on any changes. 

Bisignano said he wasn’t aware of any plans to cut Social Security benefits. 

“I don’t think anyone would appreciate not getting their Social Security check on time,” he said, adding that if any DOGE-related effort was “inappropriate, it would be changed.”