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 4th Circuit Court of Appeals rules that DOGE may not have access to Social Security databases.
The Trump Administration has identified its top accomplishments at Social Security in its first 100 days.
From Time:
... The Biden Administration moved aggressively in its final 18 months to convince more than 200 AI technology experts to forgo the private sector for the federal workforce, through what was called the ”National AI Talent Surge.” The new hires were deployed throughout the government and used AI to find ways to reduce Social Security wait times, simplify tax filings, and help veterans track their medical care. Most of them were quickly pushed out by the new administration, multiple former federal officials tell TIME.
The shift, say the former officials, represents an enormous waste of federal resources, as agencies across the Trump Administration are looking to draw workers with the very experience they just let go. It also means agencies may have to increasingly rely on costlier outside companies for that expertise. ...
In early 2024, Biden officials hired Angelica Quirarte, who had spent years pitching tech experts on becoming public servants. Quirarte says that coders and engineers are natural problem-solvers and are attracted to the challenge of working with huge data sets that can improve services for millions of people. ...
In less than a year, Quirarte tells TIME, she helped hire about 250 AI experts. After Trump’s actions, she estimates about 10% of that cohort are still with the federal government.
“It’s going to be really hard” for the Trump administration to hire more tech workers after such haphazard layoffs, Quirarte says. “It’s so chaotic.” ...
These are not serious people.
From Rest of World:
When Josélia de Brito, a former sugarcane worker from a remote town in northeast Brazil, filed for her retirement benefits through the mandated government app, she expected her claim would be processed quickly. Instead, her request was instantly turned down because the system identified her as a man. ...
It was especially frustrating for de Brito, who had been requesting sick pay for years via the National Social Security Institute’s artificial intelligence-powered app, Meu INSS. ... [E]ven minor errors in her claims filed through the app had led to numerous rejections, with few options for recourse. ...
Brazil’s social security institute, known as INSS, added AI to its app in 2018 in an effort to cut red tape and speed up claims. The office, known for its long lines and wait times, had around 2 million pending requests for everything from doctor’s appointments to sick pay to pensions to retirement benefits at the time. While the AI-powered tool has since helped process thousands of basic claims, it has also rejected requests from hundreds of people like de Brito — who live in remote areas and have little digital literacy — for minor errors. ...
From ThinkAdvisor:
The Social Security Administration said Friday that starting this summer, "my Social Security" portal users will be provided digital access to their Social Security number — offering "a modernized, secure and accessible alternative to the traditional physical SSN card."
The digital SSN feature "will allow account holders to conveniently display their SSN, when needed, for reasons other than handling Social Security matters," the agency said.
"This enhancement will provide individuals who have forgotten their SSN or misplaced their SSN cards a simple solution allowing them to securely view their SSN online," SSA said. "This will reduce their need for an in-person visit and/or having to wait to receive their SSN card through the mail." ...
I don't understand how this is going to work when someone needs to show their Social Security card in order to get a job or a drivers license.
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.
Newly issued Social Security Emergency Message EM 25029 indicates that the default overpayment recovery rate will be 50%, not 100% as feared. It had been 10% for about the last year. Also, those already told they had a 10% recovery rate won’t see that rate rise.
