The Bisignano nomination to become Commissioner of Social Security has advanced. The Senate Finance Committee has reported out the nomination favorably. We will see how soon the entire Senate will act on this. There may be a desire to put an adult in charge as quickly as possible.
We don't know how much control Bisignano will have over the brats from DOGE or whether the Office of Management and Budget will order arbitrary staffing cuts that Bisignano will be unable to resist. Of course, we don't know what Bisignano himself wants. I'd like to project upon him my desire that he act responsibly or that, at the least, that he try to avoid presiding over a disaster but it's more than possible that Bisignano is a true believer who cannot imagine that there's a connection between staffing levels and public service. He may even believe that public service doesn't matter.
21 comments:
I have no confidence in Bisignao. He will be Dorcas Hardy on steroids.
Predictions: Frank will use AI to automate the service so lines will be 24-7 and most questions can be solved by intelligent agent. He will better train staff so they can help with the problems FrankAI can’t solve. He will boost morale by restoring telework, and sell off all useless regional buildings and hearing offices. There will be layoffs but only through more VERA and a DRP 2.0 (fork) offered to SSA employees.
Holy ****! I want whatever you’re smoking!
https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Politics/wireStory/social-securitys-acting-leader-faces-calls-resign-decision-120425943
https://www.yahoo.com/news/chellie-pingree-calls-leland-dudek-172515855.html
Mr. Dudek has been phenomenal. He has done a terrific job as a public servant. Resign? Try promotion. Everyone at our last HQ meeting really enjoyed interacting with him. He’s like a very pleasant Uncle Fester.
https://newrepublic.com/post/193483/donald-trump-maine-governor-social-security-leaked-emails
For anyone who mistakenly thought Leland is anything but a childish troll
From Talking Points Memo:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/where-things-stand/social-security-admin-canceled-maine-contracts-as-political-revenge-for-trump
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, obtained private emails that show the acting commissioner of Social Security purposely canceled contracts the Social Security Administration holds with the state of Maine as some sort of political payback against Democratic Gov. Janet Mills.
Connolly outlined the correspondence in a letter, which appears to have been originally obtained by HuffPost. The emails reportedly show that acting commissioner Leland Dudek asked Social Security staff to provide him with information on what contracts the state of Maine holds with the SSA. He made the request about one week after President Trump got into a public fight with Mills over his at the time new executive order banning trans women and girls from participating in women’s and girls’ sports.
Social Security staff reportedly told Dudek that Maine, like all states, has a contract with the Social Security Administration that allows infants to be assigned Social Security numbers at birth. The contract also aides in state death verifications.
Per HuffPost:
According to emails obtained by Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Social Security staff informed Dudek that canceling the contracts “would result in improper payments and potential for identity theft.”
Dudek told his staff to go for it.
“Please cancel the contracts. While our improper payments will go up, and fraudsters may compromise identities, no money will go from the public trust to a petulant child,” Dudek wrote, referring to Mills.
Canceling the vital records contracts would make it more difficult for the federal government to track births and deaths in Maine, hampering efforts to prevent fraud across government agencies, all of which use Social Security records to prevent improper payments.
Dudek, you may recall, was forced to restore the contracts less than a day later, following immediate pushback when Maine announced it couldn’t assign parents Social Security numbers for their newborns at hospitals in the state due to the cancelation. At the time he said it was unintentional.
Connolly called on Dudek to resign in a letter on Tuesday.
“The acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration should serve the American people, not create waste, fraud, and abuse on the taxpayer’s dime,” Connolly wrote.
no more staff cuts... we are already a historical lows for employees.. More importantly, as a measure, if you calculated ratio of SSA employees relative to 65+ population (or the dependency ratio), it would show super historical lows.. .. I don't understand their penchant for downsizing.. its all about cruelty ..
Ok Leland, it's your story, tell it how you want to. Whatever lets you sleep at night.
The ceiling of my expectations is "standard business villain who improves some processes and doesn't deliver shit in additional resources".
The floor of my expectations is Linda McMahon-style "I only took this job to turn the lights out in the last agency building."
I’m sure he will get right on with resigning. Good job Connolly. Maybe he can investigate the time to make the donuts guy next.
Don’t worry. The reassignments are coming. Lots of people in the field as for this and HQ staff will be there soon. Everyone will have to your game. When you have a former GS-14 division director now working as your MSS, things are not going to slip by. Former policy analysts working as TEs doing PQR reviews or working as CS will make everyone perform better. Former public affairs people from the region now corresponding with claimants will make everyone’s phone and customer derive soft skills better. Everyone is gonna have to step up to keep pace and I think the field is gonna really benefit from this.
I like this. Talented but underutilized HQ employees sent to the field to clean house.
Frank is not coming to save the day. He's been working with Elon and DOGE behind the scenes the entire time. He will be no better than Leland. Probably worse because he'll be bipartisan Senate confirmed.
So people doing the same thing they were doing before but for fewer people and less pay is going to make things better somehow? Sometimes I really wish I had such grand capacity for self-deception, I'd probably be happier....
Hard to tell if this is sarcasm or extreme delusion.
Hoo boy. I’m not sure Dudek knows who time to make the donuts guy is. Hope you are enjoying retirement!
That must be sarcasm right? While some of these people might have skills of immediate benefit, some of them are being put in positions they are unqualified for. The most ridiculous reassignment would be to a technical expert position for somebody that hasn't worked in a production position for 10, 20, or even 30 years. These are critical positions where you must have the skills to succeed upon starting the position. They are promotion positions for a reason. Those employees should be responsible for completing the most complex work and training others. That's not happening if somebody was just slid into one of those positions from a reassignment. That's a recipe for high level drama and a lot of anger from those having to work with an unqualified technical expert.
You run out of your antipsychotics? 🦇 💩 🤡
What a delusional person! Obviously someone not at all familiar with SSA operations. FO and PSC technicians do not just watch claimants check off blocks on some form. Decions must be made to determine if the person is eligible for any benefits and what type based on the numerous provisions of SSA law. They are not just form takers. Outsiders have no clue what goes into processing and servicing a claimant. SSA is dying internally and on hospice and no one seems to care. So sad for its employees and beneficiaries.
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