The newly sworn-in head of the Social Safety Administration informed company workers this week that when he was first supplied the job within the Trump administration, he wasn’t conversant in the place and needed to look it up on-line.
Frank Bisignano, a former Wall Avenue govt, stated throughout a city corridor with Social Safety managers from across the nation on Wednesday that he wasn’t searching for a place within the Trump administration when he acquired a name about main the SSA.
“So, I get a cellphone name and it is about Social Safety. And I am actually, I am actually not, I swear I am not in search of a job,” Bisignano stated, in response to an audio recording of the assembly obtained by ABC Information. “And I am like, ‘Effectively, what am I going to do?’ So, I am Googling Social Safety. You realize, one among my nice expertise, I am one of many nice Googlers on the East Coast.”
“I am like, ‘What the heck’s the commissioner of Social Safety?'” stated Bisignano, who now oversees one of many largest federal companies that is chargeable for distributing retirement, incapacity, and survivor advantages to greater than 70 million Individuals.
“Put that because the headline for the Submit: ‘Nice Googler in Chief. Chief in Googler’ or no matter,” stated Bisignano, who all through the assembly repeatedly bemoaned media leaks from throughout the company.
Whereas Bisignano, who beforehand served as chairman and CEO of economic expertise firm Fiserv Inc., brings expertise managing giant organizations and overseeing complicated cost methods to his new function, he has no prior historical past working in authorities or with the Social Safety system.
A Social Safety official informed ABC Information that Bisignano is “working to rework the company right into a premier service group.”
Frank Bisignano arrives to testify at his Senate Finance Committee affirmation listening to on the Dirksen Senate Workplace Constructing on March 25, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Pictures
“He’s visiting workplaces and assembly staff to listen to their concepts for a way the company can higher serve prospects in-person, on the phone, and on-line. Because the Commissioner evaluates the company, he has been clear that SSA could have the appropriate staffing to ship Individuals their hard-earned advantages.”
In Wednesday’s 90-minute name, Bisignano sought to calm considerations about the way forward for the company amid latest management turnover and scrutiny from Elon Musk’s government-slashing Department of Government Efficiency, often called DOGE.
He informed the managers within the assembly that Social Safety was “not going away,” including that President Trump additionally agrees with that.
“That is America’s, you realize, security internet — it is not going away. And hopefully you hear me say this on daily basis,” he stated. “You realize who needs me to inform those that? Guess. The president.”
“I’ve gotten notes about, ‘Will the turmoil of the final 5 months finish? Are you right here to trigger extra turmoil?'” he stated. “I do not assume it is the turmoil of the previous 5 months, though I would be the fifth since, you realize, November, proper?” Bisignano stated, referring to being the fifth particular person put in command of the important company since Trump was reelected in November.
“Are we having enjoyable but? Are we OK?” he requested these on the decision.
Bisignano informed the managers that they wanted to imagine that DOGE was “serving to to make issues higher” even when “it might not really feel that approach.”
“Who’s heard of DOGE? Elevate your hand, proper? Your bias must be, as a result of mine is, DOGE helps make issues higher. It might not really feel that approach, however do not imagine the whole lot you learn.”
He stated DOGE could be concerned in rebuilding the Social Safety web site and integrating synthetic intelligence into the company’s cellphone assist methods.
The top of the company additionally informed managers that the SSA should undertake a “digital-first” mindset to satisfy the expectations of the American public, evaluating the company to how shoppers work together with tech giants like Amazon.
“You are competing with experiences that folks have with Amazon, proper? So if I may get one thing accomplished at Amazon, why cannot I get one thing accomplished the identical approach with Social Safety? That is how individuals assume.”
A Social Safety Administration (SSA) workplace in Washington, DC, March 26, 2025.
Saul Loeb/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
Bisignano’s formally joins the company following months of upheaval on the SSA, which has seen a revolving door of management amid DOGE’s sweeping efforts to overtake the company by modernizing its operations and chopping prices. Among the many adjustments DOGE is pushing are workers reassignments, digital infrastructure overhauls, and the controversial outsourcing of sure administrative features, in response to sources.
Bisignano additionally stated he doesn’t intend to implement reductions in power, or RIFs, on the company, at the least for now. “I’ve no intent to RIF individuals, OK? As a result of that is the massive query,” he stated.
When the Wall Avenue veteran was named Trump’s decide to guide the company, he confronted backlash from Democrats and activists who claimed his choice threatened the way forward for the Social Safety program. In early Might, lawmakers, union leaders, and activists protested his choice exterior the U.S. Capitol forward of the Senate vote on his nomination.
On Wednesday’s name, Bisignano appeared to revel within the information.
“Did you guys know there was a protest in opposition to me? Who is aware of there was a protest in opposition to me?” he stated. “I like that protest — I need to show them so fallacious, man, that is going to be most enjoyable I ever had.”
“I imply, consider that — a poor boy from Brooklyn, from a multi-generational family with a dad who labored within the federal authorities, and senators picketing that I will damage it,” he stated. “No approach — make it nice, proper?”
Bisignano, throughout the name, returned a number of occasions to his considerations about leaks to the press, suggesting that he would sniff them out.
“My father was a DA and I am a detective at coronary heart, so I can determine stuff out,” he stated.
