WASHINGTON (States Newsroom) — President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Social Security Administration pledged Tuesday that if confirmed, he’d ensure Americans can access customer service however they choose, though Democrats questioned how that would be possible if thousands of employees are fired and offices throughout the country are closed.
Social Security Commissioner nominee Frank Bisignano testified during a nearly three-hour hearing in the Senate Finance Committee that he wants to ensure beneficiaries have the option to visit an office, use the website, or speak to a real person after calling the 1-800 number.
“On the phone, I’m committed to reducing wait times and providing beneficiaries with a better experience; waiting 20 minutes-plus to get an answer will be of yesteryear,” Bisignano said. “I also believe we can significantly improve the length of the disability claim process.”
Bisignano promised lawmakers he would reduce the 1% error rate in payments, which he said was “five decimal places too high.” And he said repeatedly that personally identifiable information will be “protected.”
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Elevator music
Democrats and Republicans on the panel repeatedly raised concerns about how long constituents already wait for their phone calls to be answered when they need to make changes or have an issue with their Social Security benefits.
Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., said that on Monday to prepare for the hearing, his staff called the Social Security Administration’s customer service number, but were disconnected twice and then had to wait an hour while listening to “D-grade elevator music.”
“It could have at least had Olivia Newton-John or some mediocre 70s music,” Daines said while playing a recording of the hold music.
Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy asked Bisignano how he’d ensure potential changes at the Social Security Administration wouldn’t exclude seniors who are unable to attend in-person meetings at a field office.
Bisignano said he views the phone as a “mandatory way for people to communicate,” especially since the Social Security Administration received more than 80 million calls last year.
“If you look at the Social Security website, and you look at the statistics, taking 20-plus minutes to answer the phone is not really acceptable,” Bisignano said. “And that’s the reason why only 46% of the phone calls get answered; people get discouraged and hang up.”
Bisignano said he believes he can get wait times on the phone line down to under one minute.
“I think we can also help the people within the organization answer questions better by bringing artificial intelligence to them to prompt them with the information they need,” Bisignano said.
Bisignano, of New Jersey, works as chairman of the board and chief executive officer at Fiserv, Inc., which “enables money movement for thousands of financial institutions and millions of people and businesses,” according to its website. The company is based in Wisconsin.
He previously worked as co-chief operating officer and chief executive officer of Mortgage Banking at JPMorgan Chase & Co.
DOGE pursues office closures
Democrats appeared unconvinced that proposed changes from the U.S. DOGE Service and Elon Musk would have a positive impact on the Social Security Administration.
“Earlier this month, at the direction of Elon Musk and DOGE, the administration announced plans to close 47 Social Security offices, including the one in Littleton, New Hampshire,” Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan said. “Shortly thereafter, the Social Security Administration announced plans that would force more applicants and beneficiaries to go in-person to offices while at the same time laying off staff who work in those remaining offices. If the Littleton office is closed, North Country seniors would be forced to travel nearly 100 miles to the next closest New Hampshire field office.”
Colorado Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet criticized the Trump administration for announcing plans earlier this month to eliminate “access to a number of service options over the phone.”
“Instead, they’ll need to either use an online verification process or call to make an in-person appointment,” Bennet said. “The agency itself estimates that this will add 75,000 to 85,000 in-person visitors a week to field offices.
“As my colleagues have already said, wait times for appointments can already take a month. And that in-person appointment is only going to get harder to make if the agency cuts 7,000 employees and ends up with the lowest headcount in decades.”
Minnesota Democratic Tina Smith said the Trump administration’s choosing to “drastically reduce phone service and force people to apply for benefits in person” while shuttering offices was unacceptable.
“So you can call this rank incompetence, or you can call it the don’t-know-don’t-care game plan that DOGE has taken across the board,” Smith said. “But to me, it honestly looks like sabotage.”
Bisignano testified that he, and no one else, would make the final decision about whether to close field offices.
“What I will commit to is that there will be no decision made without you knowing about it,” he said. “I have no intent to close field offices, but I’ve studied nothing on the topic. So, it’s a little hard to commit to something.”
North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis urged Bisignano not to “pull any punches” on decisions about closing field offices.
“What you’re going to find out is, after you do the analytics, every member of Congress, except for me probably, will like your analytics, except to the extent that it affects one of their offices and their district or state,” Tillis said.
‘Fraudsters,’ newborns and layoffs
Bisignano distanced himself from some of the comments Trump administration officials have made about Social Security, though he appeared reluctant to do so.
He didn’t agree with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who said on a podcast that his mother-in-law wouldn’t complain if she missed a Social Security payment and that “the easiest way to find the fraudster is to stop payments and listen because whoever screams is the one stealing.”
“It would be hard to get to that conclusion,” Bisignano said.
He said he didn’t agree with trying to use Social Security as a political weapon, after Nevada Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto asked about news reports the acting Social Security commissioner tried to make changes to how Social Security numbers are issued to newborns in Maine.
“The current Social Security administrator briefly ended a contract that had allowed parents of newborn babies in Maine to sign their children up for a Social Security number at the hospital,” Cortez Masto said. “Instead, he required them to do so in person at an office.”
“The current administrator, according to a New York Times article, said he had ordered the move after watching Gov. Janet Mills clash with Mr. Trump at the White House,” she added. “He then quickly reversed that decision but said he did it because he felt that the governor of Maine was not being real cordial to the president.”
Bisignano appeared to reject the possibility of mass layoffs at the Social Security administration when asked about the issue by Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders.
“Do I think it’s a great idea to lay off half of the employees when a system doesn’t work? I think the answer is probably no,” Bisignano said.
Vermont Democratic Sen. Peter Welch asked whether Bisignano would have taken the same approach to firing some federal workers that DOGE has, which Welch described as a “shoot first, aim later” system.
“No,” Bisignano said.
During another part of the hearing, Bisignano said that he believes his job as commissioner would be to “ensure that every beneficiary receives their payments on time, that disability claims are processed in the manner they should be.”
“So my first actions are going to be to get organized around delivering the services,” he said. “And I’ve only been given one order, which is to run the agency in the right fashion.”
Bisignano also rejected the possibility of privatizing Social Security.
“I’ve never thought about privatizing. It’s not a word that anybody’s ever talked to me about,” Bisignano said. “And I don’t see this institution as anything other than a government agency that gets run to the benefit of the American public.”
