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.

A Poll For Social Security Employees Only

 

online polls

Bisignano Nomination Resubmitted

     I suppose we should expect any sort of incompetence from the Trump White House but this is amazing. The Bisignano nomination has been resubmitted! It was definitely withdrawn and then quickly resubmitted.

Bisignano Nomination Withdrawn

      I had asked at least twice whether Frank Bisignano know what he was getting into with his nomination to become Commissioner of Social Security. I can’t say that the issues that concern me led to it but the Bisignano nomination has been withdrawn.

Early Out Questions

     The Trump Administration is offering early outs to federal employees. If they accept, they will be paid through September. This brings up some questions in my mind.

• Was this deal offered to all Social Security employees?
• Early outs have certainly been offered in the past. Is this deal different than what has been offered in the past?
• If this deal is being offered to payment center employees, does the Trump Administration have any idea of the problems that will be created at an agency already facing a massive challenge to implement the implementation of the WEP/GPO bill? And I don’t mean to suggest that other agency employees aren’t also essential.
• Does Frank Bisignano have any idea of the disaster he may inherit if he’s confirmed as Commissioner?

     I hate what may happen at Social Security but the antigovernment incompetents running things in the Trump Administration richly deserve what’s heading their way.

A Year To Implement WEP/GPO Repeal

 

    The Social Security Administration posted questions and answers on the implementation of the bill ending the Government Pension Offset and Windfall Elimination Provision on January 24 — after Inauguration Day. Here’s an excerpt:

… SSA's ability to implement the law in a timely manner and without negatively affecting day-to-day customer service relies on funding. The Act did not provide money to implement the law. The law requires SSA to adjust benefits for over 3 million people. Since the law's effective date is retroactive, SSA must adjust people's past benefits as well as future benefits. Though SSA is helping some affected beneficiaries now, under SSA's current budget, SSA expects that it could take more than one year to adjust benefits and pay all retroactive benefits.

Callers to SSA's National 800 Number hear a message about the Act. This message has helped tens of thousands of people avoid holding for a representative. However, more than 7,000 people each day still choose to wait to speak to a representative about the Act. These calls, as well as visitors and appointments in local offices, will continue to increase over the coming weeks and months.

Helping people with this new and unfunded workload is made more difficult by SSA's ongoing staffing shortages, including operating under a hiring freeze since November 2024. This hiring freeze is likely to continue. All SSA customers, including those not affected by the Act, will face delays and increased wait times as SSA prioritizes this new workload. …

IG Fired

      Donald Trump has fired Social Security’s Inspector General along with at least 14 other IGs. It’s odd that the IG for Social Security was fired. She was only in an acting role anyway.

No, You’re The Dummy

      Read this piece in Forbes if you want to either laugh or become enraged. It is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever read about Social Security and I’ve read a lot of dumb things about Social Security. The author thinks we can painlessly cut $10 trillion from Social Security but almost all of what he recommends is already in use!  He thinks we can totally eliminate overpayments at SSA. He doesn’t begin to understand the equation. You can go from 99% accuracy to 99.9% accuracy but you’ll spend more than you save getting there. He thinks Social Security engages in no data sharing but it actually engages in extensive data sharing.

     This piece is an example of what many people, especially on the right, think about government agencies, that they’re run by morons and that their performance could be dramatically improved in simple ways. While the people running Social Security may make a few mistakes, they’re not idiots. There are no simple low cost solutions. The idea that there’s $10 trillion out there to be saved is nuts.