Senate Confirms Trump’s Nominee to Run Social Security Administration 👉 Updatem News

The Senate confirmed former tech CEO Frank Bisignano in a party-line vote.

The U.S. Senate confirmed the nomination of former tech CEO Frank Bisignano as the head commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA) in a party-line vote on Tuesday.

Bisignano, the former CEO of technology company Fiserv, will lead the federal agency that provides monthly payments to tens of millions of retirees and supplemental income to others.

The Senate confirmed Bisignano 53–47, with all Republicans in the upper chamber voting in favor, while Democrats voted against.

The nomination drew pushback from Democrats as Trump administration officials suggested that the SSA slim down its workforce.

As the confirmation was being held, some Senate Democrats explained why they wouldn’t vote for the nominee.

“Frank Bisignano has made it clear that he won’t stop the Trump Admin and DOGE from making it harder for millions of Americans to access their Social Security benefits if he’s confirmed as SSA Commissioner,” said Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) in a video released Tuesday afternoon on X.

Bisignano denied some of the claims during a hearing in March and also said he was never asked about possibly privatizing the agency, as some Democrats had suggested.

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

Also during the hearing, Bisignano said, “I don’t think anyone would appreciate not getting their Social Security check on time,” adding that if any effort to change the agency were “inappropriate,“ then ”it would be changed.”

As head of the SSA, Bisignago will now have to deal with a handful of lawsuits filed against the agency and DOGE. Late last week, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to allow DOGE to regain access inside the agency’s systems after a lower court blocked them from doing so on privacy and security grounds.

His confirmation comes as the massive retirement system, which pays out $1.4 trillion in benefits to 73 million elderly and disabled Americans annually, has made cuts and changes in recent months.

In an April 29 statement on its website, the SSA confirmed that it “has made significant progress in improving the accuracy of death data, addressing a longstanding oversight concern” and that it has improved on “established procedures to identify people who have a higher likelihood of being deceased due to their age or incomplete death reports.”

“Updating the records of individuals who are implausibly old to be living is an important anti-fraud measure,” the SSA said, adding that, so far, “no instances have arisen to date where an implausibly old individual whose record SSA updated actually contacted the agency for reinstatement.”

President Donald Trump said at a NewsNation event that a proposed Republican budget bill that is being considered in Congress would not impact Social Security or Medicaid.

“If you look at Social Security–and by the way, I think I’m better to say this than anybody, because I did nothing with entitlements that would hurt people for four years,” he said. “I could have done that. If I were going to do that, I would have done it five years ago, six years ago, or seven years ago. I’m not doing anything.”

With the confirmation, Bisignano takes over the SSA from acting Commissioner Lee Dudek.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Original News Source Link – Epoch Times

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