[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 73 (Thursday, May 1, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2730-S2732]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                     Nomination of Frank Bisignano

  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I rise to urge my colleagues to reject 
Frank Bisignano's nomination to be the Commissioner of the Social 
Security Administration.
  The first 100 days of Donald Trump's second term have been filled 
with chaos and cruelty that have reached into every corner of American 
life. Perhaps no development has been as alarming to the elderly and 
other concerned Americans as the attacks of the Trump administration on 
Social Security.
  Social Security has long been considered the third rail of American 
politics. It is simply too important to American workers who spent 
their lives paying into the program out of every paycheck for 
politicians to idly propose major changes that would harm the earned 
benefits of Americans. Yet Donald Trump and his billionaire allies have 
decided that they are simply immune to the concerns of American 
citizens. They are about to find out just how wrong they are.
  Over the past several months, the Trump administration has attacked 
nearly every aspect of Social Security. First, it was Americans' 
sensitive private information protected by Social Security. Then it was 
scheduling field offices for closure across the country. Then it was 
eliminating phone service for many Social Security claims.
  Worst of all, there is a widespread view among Donald Trump's top 
lieutenants, from Elon Musk to Howard Lutnick, that Social Security is 
just chock-full of fraudsters. The whiplash caused by day after day of 
all the disruption and chaos has resulted in bedlam at Social Security, 
and, in my view, it has put the earned benefits of millions of 
Americans in jeopardy.
  Mr. President, I wish I could stand in the Senate today and say the 
cavalry is coming; the chaos will soon be over. But I am afraid that is 
not the case.
  If Frank Bisignano is confirmed, he is going to bring more of the 
chaos, lies, and callous disregard for Americans who count on Social 
Security that the Trump administration has brought to the Agency 
through DOGE. That was front and center when the nominee came before 
the Finance Committee in March.
  That was front and center when the nominee came before the Finance 
Committee in March. Just before the hearing, I received a very valuable 
statement from a whistleblower, a former senior official at Social 
Security. The whistleblower stated that Mr. Bisignano had been deeply 
involved in the DOGE chaos at Social Security. The whistleblower said:

       I am concerned that the President's nominee to be 
     Commissioner of Social Security, Frank Bisignano, will not 
     temper the crisis but rather bolster it.

  The allegations presented by the whistleblower center around Elon 
Musk's DOGE and their attempts to access Social Security databases that

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hold reams of personal, sensitive information of every single American. 
These databases represent the Fort Knox of Americans' personal lives--
bank account numbers, home addresses, work history, salaries, medical 
records. Trump's DOGE cronies wanted unfettered access to the 
databases. They are still fighting for that as we speak, after they 
have been blocked in court.
  According to the whistleblower, Mr. Bisignano personally appointed 
his Wall Street friend Michael Russo to be the leader of the DOGE team 
at Social Security. According to the Washington Post, which 
independently verified the whistleblower's account:

       After Russo had trouble persuading the career staff to 
     expedite the hiring of a DOGE software engineer named Akash 
     Bobba, ``Mr. Bisignano personally intervened . . . to 
     instruct Social Security Administration staff to onboard Mr. 
     Bobba and give him immediate access'' to the agency's private 
     data systems. Bisignano did not address what role he may have 
     had in helping Mr. Bobba gain access. Bobba and Russo did not 
     respond to requests for comment.

  That is a direct quote from the Washington Post newspaper.
  My view is this is a remarkable statement that ought to alarm all 
Americans.
  I asked Mr. Bisignano about his affiliations with DOGE before, 
during, and after his hearing. Each time, he disavowed the 
whistleblower's allegations. I viewed that moment as an opportunity for 
Democrats and Republicans to come together, as we have done so often on 
a bipartisan basis, and get to the bottom of this before the Finance 
Committee reported the nominee to the full Senate. Unfortunately, my 
Republican colleagues didn't see it that way.
  I started by asking the chairman of the Finance Committee for a 
bipartisan meeting with this whistleblower to evaluate their claims and 
seek additional evidence to determine if the nominee lied to members of 
the committee. The majority refused to hold that meeting or postpone 
the committee vote unless we agreed to hand over any information 
received from the whistleblower directly to the nominee and the Trump 
administration.
  I just want to be clear on this point. This is a violation of 
Whistleblowing 101. That is because it allows the government to 
identify the individual blowing the whistle through a process of 
elimination. It jeopardizes the whistleblower's anonymity and safety, 
and I am going to have no part of that as the cochair of the 
Whistleblower Caucus with my friend Chuck Grassley. There is a long 
bipartisan tradition in the Senate of treating whistleblowers with 
great respect and deep care.
  I am here to warn America now about a dangerous erosion of 
congressional oversight that will have a chilling effect on public 
servants who are thinking about coming forward and blowing the whistle 
when government Agencies are acting against the interests of the 
Americans they serve.
  Mr. President, I fear that the events I have just described are going 
to cause public servants who want to do the right thing to put away 
their whistles. That is bad for good government, it is bad for 
congressional oversight of laws we delegated to the executive branch 
through our constitutional authority, and it is bad for Americans who 
expect their government to be responsive and transparent.
  The double whammy of disrespect for Social Security and the Americans 
who count on its earned benefits, along with the culture of secrecy and 
lies that exist throughout the Trump administration, is a bad omen for 
what is ahead for Social Security.
  Even if the Republican Party decides to pretend none of this is 
happening, Americans from Portland, OR, to Portland, ME--all of them--
are speaking out, literally, this weekend.
  All Americans should be concerned that a nominee for a position of 
public trust like Commissioner of Social Security is accused of lying 
about his actions at the Agency, and that efforts to bring this 
important information to light are now being thwarted.
  If Mr. Bisignano can get away with lying before he is even in place 
as Commissioner, who knows what else he will be able to get away with 
once he is in office? He could lie by denying any American who paid 
their Social Security taxes the benefits they have earned, claiming 
some phony pretense. He could lie about how sensitive personal 
information is being mishandled or, worse, exploited for commercial 
use.
  I will close with this. I am going to have a lot more to say about 
the nominee and the Trump administration's disastrous record on Social 
Security. Today, I urge my colleagues to vote no on the cloture vote 
coming up to bring sanity back to Social Security and, in my view, 
safeguard the Senate's long and bipartisan tradition as a safe haven 
for government whistleblowers who want to speak truth to power.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Moreno). The Senator from Idaho.
  Mr. CRAPO. Mr. President, I rise today to urge my colleagues to vote 
in favor of the confirmation of Mr. Frank Bisignano, who is nominated 
to be the Commissioner of the Social Security Administration.
  The Social Security Administration has the significant responsibility 
of overseeing the Social Security Program, which provides monthly 
benefits to millions of seniors, individuals with disabilities, and 
their families. The Social Security Administration also oversees the 
Supplemental Security Income Program and issues Social Security numbers 
and cards, among other critical workloads.
  I am confident that Mr. Bisignano has the experience needed to lead 
this important Agency. He has more than 30 years of executive 
leadership experience in banks and financial institutions. He currently 
serves as the chairman of the board and the chief executive officer of 
Fiserv, Incorporated, a leader in payments and financial technology.
  During his nomination hearing, Mr. Bisignano committed to improving 
customer service at the Social Security Administration, including by 
bringing down wait times for the Agency's national 800 number and for 
claims decisions; ensuring that individuals can interact with the 
Social Security Administration in the way they prefer, whether in 
person, by phone, or online; and improving the Social Security 
Administration's payment accuracy.
  During Mr. Bisignano's nomination hearing, concerns were raised 
regarding his alleged connections to DOGE's work at the Social Security 
Administration. These allegations were raised in an anonymous letter 
dated March 24, 2025, the day before the nomination hearing.
  The allegations focused on the frequency and details of 
communications between the nominee and Social Security Administration 
officials. Mr. Bisignano addressed these allegations during the hearing 
and responded in writing as part of the questions for the record. He 
has stated clearly that he does not currently have a role at the Social 
Security Administration and was not part of the decision-making process 
led by the Acting Commissioner, Lee Dudek, about Social Security 
operations, personnel, or management.
  The Social Security Administration needs steady, Senate-confirmed 
leadership. Mr. Bisignano would bring his decades-long focus on 
customer service and operational excellence to the Social Security 
Administration.
  I strongly encourage my colleagues to join me in voting to confirm 
Mr. Bisignano to serve as the next Commissioner of Social Security.
  Mr. WYDEN. To respond to my colleague, who I have worked together 
with so often in such a positive way, this is an area where we just 
have a very significant difference of opinion.
  The whistleblower was a senior official who worked for years at 
Social Security. I believe the information given was credible, 
documented now by the Washington Post reporter who surveyed some of the 
resources and the individuals who could confirm it.
  What I want to do, because I have worked with my colleague so often, 
is to have a bipartisan process to resolve the matter. What the 
majority said was, if we were going to have a bipartisan process, we 
would take the information that the whistleblower gave and we would 
give it to the administration and anybody else. And it would breach the 
essence of Whistleblowing 101--what we have worked on for so long.
  So I want it understood that I still wish we were doing this in a 
bipartisan way, as I have done for so long as the cochair of the 
Whistleblower Caucus.

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That would resolve it, and it would be done with the tradition of 
protecting whistleblowers, as we have done so often over the years and 
especially in the Finance Committee.
  What I think is unfortunate is this is breaking the tradition that 
the Finance Committee has always done in terms of protecting 
whistleblowers, doing it in a fair way, and working together. I think 
we will regret it.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Idaho.
  Mr. CRAPO. Mr. President, briefly to respond, we worked very closely 
with our colleagues across the aisle to try to vet this anonymous 
letter and get the information necessary to evaluate it. We are still 
willing to look at it.