Memorial Day 2025

 

South And Midwest Rely More On Social Security

     From Southern and Midwestern districts are the most vulnerable to Social Security cuts and disruptions posted by the Economic Policy Institute (click on image to view full size):

 

Recording Of A Small Part Of Bisignano’s Talk To Staff Surfaces

     If this was the worst issue with Bisignano I wouldn’t be concerned but here’s the part where Bisignano talks about googling his new job. There are worse things than sounding a bit goofy. I’m afraid we’ll see those worse things.

Here’s An Idea For The Commissioner

      From Social Security’s Office of Inspector

 While SSA has made progress implementing corrective actions for both the OASDI and SSI programs, the Agency did not demonstrate improvements to payment integrity or achieve its tolerable improper payment rate for the SSI program. The SSI improper payment rate increased from 9.41 percent (approximately $5.3 billion) in Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 to 10.62 percent (approximately $6.5 billion) in FY 2023.

According to SSA, the Agency’s reliance on self-reporting by beneficiaries, recipients, and their representative payees—who are required to notify SSA when a change occurs affecting their SSI eligibility or payment amounts—leads to many improper payments.  Failure to report these changes continues to be a primary cause of overpayments. 

One of the leading causes of overpayments to SSI recipients is recipients’ unreported resources in financial accounts that exceed allowable amounts. SSA has tools, such as the Access to Financial Institutions (AFI) program, to help identify excess resources.  Using AFI, SSA verifies alleged bank account balances with financial institutions and searches for undisclosed accounts at geographically relevant locations.  SSA uses AFI when it processes initial SSI applications and periodic eligibility redeterminations.

However, according to SSA, in FY 2023, 89 percent of overpayments resulting from excess resources in financial accounts occurred because of recipients’ changes after SSA approved their initial SSI applications or completed eligibility redeterminations. 

OIG estimates SSA could have prevented approximately $2 billion in overpayments in FY 2023 had it performed AFI searches between approving recipients’ initial applications and completing redeterminations.

OIG previously recommended SSA conduct a study to expand the use of AFI.  SSA has not implemented this recommendation.

     The problem with implementing this is probably the delay it would cause but, hey, it’s only SSI so it wouldn’t matter to a Republican if the benefits are never paid! 

Bisignano Doesn't Like Leaks But They're Sure Happening

     ABC News has obtained an audio recording of the meeting that Frank Bisignano had with Social Security staff yesterday. They have posted excerpts. It sounds like it was a rambling performance. I'll offer a few quotes here but if you weren't part of that meeting you probably want to look at the whole ABC piece.

... "So, I get a phone call and it's about Social Security. And I'm really, I'm really not, I swear I'm not looking for a job," Bisignano said, according to an audio recording of the meeting obtained by ABC News. "And I'm like, 'Well, what am I going to do?' So, I'm Googling Social Security. You know, one of my great skills, I'm one of the great Googlers on the East Coast."

"I'm like, 'What the heck's the commissioner of Social Security?'" said Bisignano, who now oversees one of the largest federal agencies that's responsible for distributing retirement, disability, and survivor benefits to more than 70 million Americans.

"Put that as the headline for the Post: 'Great Googler in Chief. Chief in Googler' or whatever," said Bisignano, who throughout the meeting repeatedly bemoaned media leaks from within the agency. ...

 "Are we having fun yet? Are we OK?" he asked those on the call. ...

Bisignano told the managers that they needed to believe that DOGE was "helping to make things better" even if "it may not feel that way." ...

"Did you guys know there was a protest against me? Who knows there was a protest against me?" he said. "I like that protest -- I want to prove them so wrong, man, this is going to be most fun I ever had." ...

     By the way, does anyone know whether Bisignano had any briefings from career people at Social Security between the time he was nominated and confirmed? I don't have any experience with these things. I would like to think that would be standard but Bisignano sounds like he came into the job cold.

Bisignano Repeats What He Knows To Be Outrageous Bull

      This is unbelievable. Just watch and listen to this interview with Frank Bisignano on Fox “News”. Never in my life did I imagine that a Social Security Commissioner could behave like this. He deserves no benefit of the doubt from anyone after this shocking performance.

     Note to Bisignano: If you’re still at Social Security when the 2026 election rolls around, which I doubt, don’t even think about hanging around if the Democrats regain control of the House of Representatives. It won’t be pretty for someone who has engaged in such behavior. In fact it won’t be pretty when Bisignano does a hearing with House Ways and Means now.

This Guy Is A Star Manager?

      From Federal News Network:

… SSA Commissioner Frank Bisignano told managers in a largely unscripted 90-minute address Wednesday that he has no plans for a Reduction in Force, but said AI will be a “great enabler” that helps employees handle a growing workload with its lowest headcount in 50 years.

“I have no intent to RIF people,” Bisignano told managers. “If I wake up and find out we can do all our work with 20,000 people — which I can’t see that right now — we’ll be 20,000. If I wake up and say, ‘We need 80,000,’ we’ll be 80,000. I’ve got to determine what the right staffing level is.” …

“We’ve got a lot of turmoil. I think we reassigned a lot of people,” Bisignano said. “I guarantee you, we’re going to get the job done, and my dream is to not have to let people go,” Bisignano said. “If we can’t get the job done, that’s a different problem. You guys don’t want people who don’t give an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay, do you?” …

When it comes to rolling out new tools, Bisignano said his first tech priority is to deploy AI on the agency’s phone lines.

“The phone has to have artificial intelligence to do the work. We can all do this in a year, and then your jobs will be more enriching,” he said. “The reason we get so many phone calls is because half the people have to call twice.” …

Bisignano said he’s open to asking the Trump administration money for IT modernization, or more employees to lead his tech modernization plans, if the agency doesn’t already have the resources to do it. …

“A previous commissioner likes to talk about why we’re going to break this thing — why this thing can’t work. ‘It’s like the least amount of people we’ve ever had, it must break,’” Bisignano said. “You can’t just throw stuff out with me and make something up.” …

     There’s a lot one could say about this. There’s the casual assumption that technology will save the day when’s there’s zero proof that it will or that you can afford it if it can. I’ve had the misfortune of trying to deal with a couple of large financial institutions lately. Whatever AI they were using was little more than annoying. Want to know account balance or payment due? They may be able to help you with AI. Anything else, forget it.  Can anyone point me to ANY large institution that has a well functioning AI system that really does the job of answering their phones for anything other than the simplest transactions?  He completely underestimates just how complex the calls coming in to Social Security actually are. The insinuation that employees aren’t giving an honest day’s work doesn’t endear you to agency employees who are working their tails off. He’s spouting off as if he understands the work and the workers when he doesn’t. 

Bisignano Getting Big Tax Break

      From Jacobin:

As the Trump administration hollows out the country’s safety net for retirees and those with disabilities, the agency’s new chief has just been approved for a massive tax break for his Wall Street riches, according to new ethics documents reviewed by the Lever. …

To comply with federal ethics law, Bisignano has agreed to sell his shares in Fiserv, which are currently worth roughly $484 million. Because of a special loophole in the tax code for government officials, Bisignano will be able to indefinitely defer any capital gains tax on the divestment — meaning he may never have to pay taxes on the enormous windfall.

The exact value of Bisignano’s tax break is not clear from the ethics disclosure, but previous tax breaks for comparable divestments have been worth tens of millions of dollars. …