Bisignano Confirmed

      Frank Bisignano has been confirmed as Commissioner of Social Security,

What Do You Expect From Frank Bisignano?

      Frank Bisignano is likely to be confirmed as Social Security Commissioner tomorrow. What do you expect from him?

     More than anything else I’m expecting harshness towards the public and Social Security employees. We may see novel interpretations of the Social Security Act to end benefits for whole categories of people. We may see basic refusal to provide categories of service to the public. We may see targeted firings of employees on the theory that doing so will somehow increase the productivity of those not fired — the “pour encourager les autres” theory. I’m almost certain there will be a lot of thrashing about attempting to look audacious. Those are my very general guesses. What are yours?

Bisignano Nomination Advances

    The Senate has invoked cloture to advance the nomination of Frank Bisignano to become Commissioner of Social Security. It was a party line vote with some absences. I don't know how much longer it will take to finally approve the nomination.

    A party line vote on this is a bad sign for Social Security and for the country.

Bisignano Nomination Moving Forward

      From a summary of expected action on the floor of the U.S. Senate prepared by Senate Democrats:

During Tuesday’s session cloture was filed on Executive Calendar #60, Frank Bisignano, of New Jersey, to be Commissioner of Social Security Administration for the term expiring January 19, 2031.  Cloture is expected to ripen during Thursday’s session.

    This has to be a sign that the nomination is moving forward but don’t ask me to predict when to expect final action.

The Odd Couple

      From a piece in Business Insider on Leland Dudek and Frank Bisignano:

… Bisignano's confirmation is awaiting a full Senate vote, which is expected after the chamber votes on nominees for multiple diplomatic positions.  …

Some who spoke with BI expressed surprise that he would join the Trump administration. An archived biography from First Data, where he served as chair and CEO, said he's "a strong supporter of diversity" and helped create affinity groups for women and LGBTQ+ employees at the company. He's donated to candidates on both sides of the aisle, including Sen. Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, and Florida's Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, records show. In May 2019, Bisignano gave $125,000 to the Trump Victory PAC and another $83,900 to the Republican National Committee. …

A person who has spoken with Dudek said they believed some of his bluster might be a smoke screen. They said Dudek, like previous commissioners, said he feared that the system was on the brink of collapse and worried about people not receiving their benefits — a similar sentiment to what Dudek expressed in a recording obtained by ProPublica. They feel that he thinks he's doing damage control and running interference between DOGE and everyone else.

"It felt like a bunch of 6-year-olds with too much sugar had been put in charge of the agency and were just kind of running all over the place, randomly disconnecting and reconnecting things in different ways," the former SSA manager said.

Some of the decisions at Fiserv that played out on Bisignano's watch appear to have rankled some of his employees. A former Fiserv client project manager said that return-to-office policies rolled out late last year under Bisignano contributed to his decision to leave. The former manager described the culture as "a bit of a sweatshop." …

Bisignano "loves his reputation for fixing things," said one person who worked closely with him, "not for burning things down." …

     I’m pretty sure that if he knew now what’s he’s going to learn in the next few months that Bisignano would not want to be Commissioner of Social Security. The impressive knowledge and skill which he has demonstrated in his previous career will be completely inadequate to the task because he’s faced with a truly impossible task. 

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.

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.

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

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.

Tough Questions

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

Bisignano Interview

     CNBC has posted a recent interview with Social Security Commissioner nominee Frank Bisignano. It sounds to me as if he's having trouble shifting gears mentally to the idea of working in the public sector. Fiserv handles humongous quantities of extremely simple financial transactions. Social Security handles huge quantities of complicated transactions. It's a different ballgame. Fiserv  has the money it needs to hire the staff it needs and the technology it needs. Social Security works in an arena where its administrative budget is controlled by people who are often indifferent to the proper functioning of the agency and in some cases eager to see it fail.

Info On Frank Bisignano

     From a longish piece in Fortune on Frank Bisignano:

... [Bisignano] rebuilt Citigroup’s decimated back-office operations from the ashes of 9/11, repaired Washington Mutual’s stricken subprime book after the 2007 housing meltdown as Jamie Dimon’s fixer at JPMorgan Chase, and transformed a lumbering warhorse that was one of the worst investments KKR ever made into a potent money spinner that he merged into Fiserv, then drove the combo to reign as America’s largest non-bank handler of credit card payments to retailers, restaurants and other merchants, ferrying $2.5 trillion in payments per day. ...

Bisignano built his career bulldozing forward to mend the most basic but unsexiest of businesses. The Brooklyn-born Bisignano’s father labored as a career customs agent. His mom was a 105-pound dynamo who began as a bookkeeper at a stevedoring outfit and rose to run the whole waterfront operation. Bisignano went to Baker College, a liberal arts school in Kansas, where he majored in business and won trophies as a nationally ranked bowler. [The bowling team at Baker College isn't exactly the same as the fencing team at Yale. How did an Italian-American kid from New York City end up at a small college in Kansas anyway? By the way, note that there is no mention of an M.B.A. which is surprising for someone with Bisignano's work history.] In 1994, Jamie Dimon hired Bisignano at Travelers to run operations at Smith Barney. Bisignano unwound leading a zany softball team of Italian Americans who dubbed themselves “the Paisanos” and sported floppy hats like pizza makers on the diamond. ...

Bisignano contracted throat cancer [sometime after 9/11], a condition he likely ascribes to the toxic soot of 9/11 [He was working in the area at the time]. Every morning, he’d undergo radiation in the New York area, and right afterward head to the airport to fly cross-country for a day of work on the West Coast. Then he’d jet back overnight and take radiation again in the morning. Bisignano survived surgery, and his trademark gravelly voice is a legacy of that illness. ...

Bisignano created probably the most sumptuous corporate hub in Manhattan by purchasing and totally renovating 1 Broadway, a Queen Anne–style architectural marvel dating from 1745 that overlooks Bowling Green and the New York Harbor. ...

    Read the whole thing. There's the inevitable assumption that someone with a successful business background will "turn around" Social Security, which causes my eyes to roll, but also a good deal of useful information about the man.