Social Security chief ducks DOGE questions as Democrats decry agency cuts
Social Security Administration Commissioner Frank Bisignano sidestepped questions from lawmakers this week about whether he still considers himself “fundamentally a DOGE person” in the wake of chaos and cuts at his agency brought on by the Elon Musk-created group.
Appearing before the House Ways & Means Social Security Subcommittee on Wednesday, Bisignano was pressed by Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., about the DOGE-embracing quote he gave during a February CNBC interview and if it remains true.
“I’ve been working on efficiency and quality and organization my whole life,” Bisignano replied. When asked by Gomez again whether he stands by that statement, the commissioner said he’s “here to make the place more efficient, deliver higher quality, eliminate fraud, waste and abuse.”
Much of the DOGE-fueled turmoil at SSA occurred before Bisignano, a former fintech payments executive, was confirmed to lead the agency in May. But during his confirmation hearing in March, Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., introduced a whistleblower complaint that alleged that Bisignano had intervened to get key DOGE officials installed at SSA.
One of those officials, per the complaint, was Michael Russo, who took over as the agency’s chief information officer Feb. 3. Bisignano told lawmakers that he knew Russo from his CIO roles at Oracle and the payment processing company Shift4. “I don’t know him as a DOGE person,” Bisignano said.
Less than two months into his tenure as SSA’s CIO, Russo was moved to a senior advisory role within the agency and another DOGE associate named Scott Coulter was swapped in.
On Wednesday, Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., ranking member of the full House Ways & Means Committee, asked Bisignano how many DOGE employees are currently on the agency’s payroll.
“I don’t think of people as DOGE employees,” the commissioner said. “But if you’re saying how many, it’s probably about three or four. But there’s no such thing as DOGE employees.”
DOGE’s SSA takeover in the early days of the Trump administration still reverberates throughout the agency, according to reporting from several media outlets. Per the New York Times, up to 12% of SSA’s staff is expected to leave “as part of DOGE’s cost-cutting plan,” while thousands of employees have already taken buyouts or retired.
Bisignano made the case repeatedly Wednesday that SSA will rely on technology to make up for staffing losses, telling receptive Republicans and skeptical Democrats that the agency views tech as something that can be leveraged “across the board to make jobs better for our employees.”
DOGE’s access to agency IT systems and the personal data of millions of Americans, meanwhile, is still a major concern for many lawmakers. Senate Democrats introduced a bill this month seeking performance and security audits into what DOGE left behind in its forays into SSA computer networks. That IT takeover is the subject of ongoing litigation.
Bisignano told Neal that those remaining three or four DOGE employees don’t have access to SSA’s sensitive data. And the commissioner assured Rep. Ron Estes, R-Kan., chair of the Social Security subcommittee, that Americans’ personally identifiable information “is protected well.”
“Our data is safe,” he said. “Social Security has always had a high level of security over PII, and I’ve overviewed it. I’d like to say I spent my career protecting PII in the largest financial institutions, and so we have very strong protocols on access to it and very tight security around it.”
