Frank Bisignano Ringing The Closing Bell At The New York Stock Exchange Yesterday On The Stock Market's Worst Day In Five Years

Bisignano Received No Democratic Votes From Finance Committee

      The Bisignano nomination to become Commissioner of Social Security advanced out of the Finance Committee on a narrow 14-13 party line vote. Not a rousing endorsement.

Proof Of What You Already Knew

      From HuffPost:

A week after Maine Gov. Janet Mills clashed publicly with President Donald Trump at the White House over transgender athletes in girls’ sports, Leland Dudek, the acting commissioner of Social Security, asked his staff about what contracts Maine had with the Social Security Administration. 

The agency has vital records contracts with every state, allowing parents to request Social Security numbers for their newborns at the hospital and to verify deaths through an electronic system.

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. …

     The real question is whether Dudek acted on his own initiative or whether he acted upon directions form the White House. My strong suspicion is that this came from the White House. 

Bisignano Nomination Advances

     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.

Bisignano Nomination Goes Into Overtime

      I have no idea what happened yesterday with the Bisignano nomination. The Senate Finance Committee held a session to consider the nomination but recessed without a vote after some member statements on the nomination. Maybe it had something to do with Senator Booker’s filibuster. In any case, they’re scheduled to meet again to consider the nomination at 2:15 Eastern today. This session won’t be televised,

What The Whistleblower Said

     In the Bisignano confirmation hearing there was reference to correspondence from a current or former Social Security employee concerning Bisignano's contacts with agency personnel. I haven't seen that correspondence until today. We still don't know who this is from but here it is and, as always, click on the images to view full size:

 

 

Bisignano Nomination Advancing

      The Senate Finance Committee has scheduled a meeting for 10:00 Eastern for April 1 to advance the Bisignano nomination to become Commissioner of Social Security.

What Could Go Wrong?

     From Wired:

The so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is starting to put together a team to migrate the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) computer systems entirely off one of its oldest programming languages in a matter of months, potentially putting the integrity of the system—and the benefits on which tens of millions of Americans rely—at risk.

The project is being organized by Elon Musk lieutenant Steve Davis, multiple sources who were not given permission to talk to the media tell WIRED, and aims to migrate all SSA systems off COBOL, one of the first common business-oriented programming languages, and onto a more modern replacement like Java within a scheduled tight timeframe of a few months. ...

SSA’s core “logic” is also written largely in COBOL. This is the code that issues social security numbers, manages payments, and even calculates the total amount beneficiaries should receive for different services, a former senior SSA technologist who worked in the office of the chief information officer says. Even minor changes could result in cascading failures across programs.

“If you weren't worried about a whole bunch of people not getting benefits or getting the wrong benefits, or getting the wrong entitlements, or having to wait ages, then sure go ahead,” says Dan Hon, principal of Very Little Gravitas, a technology strategy consultancy that helps government modernize services, about completing such a migration in a short timeframe.

    You may recall that Frank Bisignano testified at his confirmation hearing that COBOL was still widely used in business and that its presence at Social Security was nothing to be too concerned about. 

My Thoughts On The Bisignano Confirmation Hearing

     I have finally watched the Bisignano confirmation hearing. I found it tedious. For the most part, it wasn't a job interview. It was a performance by all parties. I understand that there are private meetings between nominees and Senators. I hope those are more substantive. 

    Anyway, here are a few thoughts:

• Bisignano said he would improve Social Security's technology generally and telephone answering. How can he possibly do this without a substantially higher appropriation? He wasn't asked about this. I wish he had been.
• Bisignano said he was committed to a six year term. I don't know but I'll be surprised if he's still there in December 2028 much less December 2030.
• Bisignano and Committee members repeatedly likened the work of the Social Security Administration to the work of the companies Bisignano has led. I don't have experience in those businesses but I just can't imagine the work of those companies being that similar to what Social Security does. Social Security is unique. It's work is vastly more complicated than processing massive numbers of simple credit card charges. He said he had 13,000 IT professionals at Fiserv. He'll have a vastly lower number at Social Security and no funds to hire more.
• Nobody asked Bisignano where he will be working. Will he be engaging in much telework from his home in New York City? I think agency employees would be interested to know. If they're being forced back to the office so should the Commissioner
• Bisignano talked about reducing improper payments as if no one at Social Security has ever tried to reduce them. That's wrong. There have been extensive efforts by many people over many decades. I don't think there are any measures imaginable to substantially reduce them. Only incremental progress is possible.
• Bisignano added a useful note of reality to the discussion of COBOL programs at Social Security. He said that COBOL is still being used extensively not just at Social Security but in many, many businesses. 
• I don’t think that anyone asked Bisignano about the Regional Office consolidations. This process couldn’t have advanced very far. I keep thinking that this bad idea will be quietly abandoned.
• I remain convinced that everybody in the Trump Administration thinks that federal employees are stupid and lazy and that simple measures can lead to dramatic improvements in government functioning even with fewer government employees. This is a fallacy. 
• Bisignano testified that in his business experience he did not arbitrarily pick a number of employees to fire without analyzing how many employees were needed to get the work done. DOGE has not been following this obvious practice.
• By the way, it appears that Senator Warnock has a trigger finger -- his right pinkie. I'm mystifying many readers, I'm sure. I talking about something medical here. It’s what I do.

The Whole Truth?

      From the Washington Post:

Frank Bisignano, President Donald Trump’s nominee to run the Social Security Administration, testified under oath at his confirmation hearing Tuesday that he has had no contact with the Elon Musk cost-cutting team that is directing a major downsizing of the agency. 

But Sen. Ron Wyden (Oregon), the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said the claim is “not true,” citing an account the senator said he received from a senior Social Security official who recently left the agency. The former official — whose detailed statement was shared with The Washington Post — described “numerous contacts Mr. Bisignano made with the agency since his nomination,” including “frequent” conversations with senior executives. 

The nominee “personally appointed” Michael Russo, the chief information officer leading Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service team at Social Security, and the two speak frequently about agency operations, the former executive said. 

The Post confirmed the former official’s account with two people, including another former senior official who heard Russo speak regularly about his interactions with Bisignano over policy changes. The other, a disability advocate, said she was told by acting commissioner Leland Dudek that the nominee and Russo “spoke multiple times a day” about Social Security operations. The advocate requested anonymity to preserve her relationship with the agency, while the former official did so because they were not authorized to disclose internal details…. 

The former official said in their statement to Wyden that 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 SSA 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 Bobba gain access. Bobba and Russo did not respond to requests for comment. …

Reports On The Confirmation Hearing

     I haven't yet been able to watch the Bisignano confirmation hearing. I'll get to it when I can. In the meantime, here are reports from ABC and NBC.

Self Awareness In Advance Of The Bisignano Nomination Hearing

      From a New York Times piece on the Bisignano nomination:

… Because of Mr. Dudek’s self-admitted bumpy tenure, he said he did not expect to last much longer.

“I can’t imagine the nominee would want to keep me after the way I’ve been doing things here,” Mr. Dudek said, adding that he had had no contact with Mr. Bisignano. …

     Remember, the Senate Finance Committee hearing on the Bisignano is set to begin at 10:00 Eastern time today.  Watch it online.

     I wouldn’t shed many tears for Dudek. The wingnutosphere always takes care of its foot soldiers.

That Videotaped Meeting

 

    Take a look at the taped meeting Social Security just posted. You'd think that Social Security's problems are almost all technical, problems that a good leader can resolve. It is the message that Bisignano can solve Social Security's problems without additional resources. Good luck with that!

Afternoon Roundup

     There are so many news articles coming out about Social Security that it's hard to keep up. Let me share a few that seem notable to me:

• MSN --  Trump’s nominee to lead Social Security Administration to face questions over DOGE cuts
• Paul Krugman --  Social Security: A Time for Outrage
• Government Executive --  Regional boards for federal agency coordination officially disbanded 
• Michigan Live -- AARP calls latest Social Security changes ‘deeply unacceptable.’ Will you be impacted? 
• CNBC --  Senators press Trump Social Security nominee on his views about privatizing the agency
• WSJ -- Dealing With Social Security Is Heading From Bad to Worse

Astrue On NPR

      Former Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue appeared on NPR this morning to talk about the struggles that the agency faces at the moment. He said “They don’t understand” a lot. By the way, Astrue had to go to his local Security Security field office recently.

Hearing Scheduled On Bisignano Nomination

      The Senate Finance Committee has scheduled a hearing at 10:00 on March 25 on the nomination of Frank Bisignano to become Commissioner of Social Security.

They May Seem Like Traitors But They’re Just Idiots

      From Government Executive:

A proposal to ban payments to people without Social Security numbers is circulating at the Social Security Administration, according to two employees. If implemented, the move could affect thousands of beneficiaries receiving retirement, disability and low-income benefits from the agency.  

An SSA memo obtained by Government Executive notes that the agency currently can, at times, make someone a representative payee even if they don’t have an SSN. The payee, Romig noted, is not required to be eligible for benefits themselves.F 

The new policy proposal would bar any payments to payees without SSNs, of which there are currently more than 170,000, according to the document. The Social Security Administration did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.   

One large group that could be affected by the proposed change would be children receiving Supplemental Security Income or disability benefits whose parents don’t have an SSN. Others impacted could include widows and other survivors of dead Americans living overseas.  …

The agency needs to confirm that it has the authority to make this change, the memo notes. If SSA moves forward, it would need to “work” the thousands of cases, contacting the payees to submit a SSN or change the payee altogether to someone that has a number. 

That task could be arduous, as finding payees is already so difficult that at times the agency turns to institutional payees like child welfare agencies, said Romig. SSA staff also have to assess the suitability of payees.  …

[Former Commissioner] Astrue, discussing the increased risk of a cybersecurity failure in light of DOGE operatives’ access to sensitive SSA databases, urged the Senate Finance Committee to move swiftly on the nomination of Frank Bisignano to lead the agency, noting “he can’t possibly be any worse” than Dudek, who was being investigated for improperly sharing information with DOGE when he was put in his current role. 

“I don’t attribute being a traitor to these people—I am attributing to them being idiots and not knowing what they’re doing,” he said. …

We’re In Crisis

      Read this thread on the National Academy of Social Insurance panel on the emergency at Social Security. Just read it.

Tough Questions

     Two Senators have some tough questions for Social Security Commissioner nominee Bisignano.

Dudek Realizes He’s The Villain

ProPublica obtained a recording of last week’s meeting between Acting Commissioner Dudek and claimant advocates. Here are a couple of excerpts from their write up: 

… Dudek’s remarks come at a time when many Social Security employees are feeling confused about Dudek, his role versus DOGE’s and what it all means for the future of the Social Security Administration, according to ProPublica’s conversations with more than two dozen agency staffers. Many said that because the recent cuts at the agency have been carried out in a piecemeal fashion, the public doesn’t seem to be grasping the totality of what is happening to the program, which is having its 90th anniversary this year. …

Meanwhile, DOGE, which Musk has portrayed as a squad of techno-efficiency geniuses, has actually undermined the efficiency of Social Security’s delivery of services in multiple ways, many employees said. Under DOGE, several Social Security IT contracts have been canceled or scaled back. Now, five employees told ProPublica, their tech systems seem to be crashing nearly every day, leading to more delays in serving beneficiaries. This was already a problem, they said, but it has gotten “much worse” and is “not the norm,” two employees said.

And under a policy that DOGE has applied at many agencies, front-line Social Security staff have been restricted from using their government purchase cards for any sum above $1. This has become a significant problem at some field offices, especially when workers need to obtain or make copies of vital records or original documents — birth certificates and the like — that are needed to process some Social Security claims, one management-level employee said. …

“I’m the villain,” he said in the recording. “I’m not going to have a job after this. I get it.”