The newly head of the Social Security Administration told the agency staff this week that when he was offered the work for the first time in the Trump administration, he was not familiar with the position and had to look for him online.
Frank Bisignano, a former Wall Street executive, said during a town hall with social security managers from all over the country on Wednesday that he was not looking for a position in the Trump administration when he received a call on the SSA address.
“Then, I receive a phone call and it is social security. And really, I am not really, I swear I am not looking for work,” said Bisignano, according to an audio recording of the meeting obtained by ABC News. “And I say, ‘Well, what am I going to do?’ So, I am looking for Google Social Security.
“I am like, ‘What is the Social Security Commissioner?'” He said Bisignano, who now supervises one of the largest federal agencies that is responsible for distributing retirement, disability and survivors benefits to more than 70 million Americans.
“Put that as the headline: ‘Great Googler in Chief. Chief in Googler’ or whatever,” said Bisignano, who during the meeting repeatedly regretted the media from within the agency.
While Bisignano, who previously served as president and CEO of the Finanv Inc. Financial Technology Company, provides experience in the management of large organizations and supervises the complex payment systems to his new role, has no previous history that works in the Government or with the Social Security System.
A Social Security official told ABC News that Bisignano is “working to transform the agency into a first level services organization.”
Frank Bisignano testifies at the Senate Finance Committee at the Dirksen Senate Office building on March 25, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
“You are visiting offices and meet employees to listen to your ideas about how the agency can better serve customers in person, by phone and online,” said the official. “As the commissioner evaluates the agency, it has been clear that SSA will have the right personnel to offer Americans their benefits won with so much effort.”
In the 90 -minute call on Wednesday, Bisignano sought to calm concerns about the agency’s future in the middle of the recent leadership billing and the scrutiny of the Efficient Department of the Government of Elon Musk, known as Doge.
He told managers at the meeting that Social Security “did not leave”, adding that President Trump also agrees with that.
“This is the United States Security Network, you know, you will not go. And I hope you hear me say this every day,” he said. “Do you know who wants people to tell that? I guess. The president.”
“I have received notes on: ‘Will the agitation of the last five months end? Are you here to cause more agitation?'” He said. “I don’t think it’s the agitation of the last five months, although I will be the fifth since, you know, November, right?” Bisignano said, referring to being the fifth person put by the Critical Agency since Trump was re -elected in November.
“Are we having fun? Are we okay?” He asked those who were on the call.
Bisignano told managers that they needed to believe that Dege was “helping to improve things”, even if “it may not feel that way.”
“Who has heard of Doge?
He said Dege would be involved in the reconstruction of the Social Security website and integrate artificial intelligence into the agency’s telephone support systems.
The agency chief also told managers that the SSA must adopt a “first” digital “mentality to meet the expectations of the American public, comparing the agency with how consumers interact with technological giants such as Amazon.
“You are competing with experiences that people have with Amazon, right? So, if I could do something on Amazon, why can’t I do something in the same way with social security? That’s how people think.”
An office of the Social Security Administration (SSA) in Washington, DC, March 26, 2025.
Saul Loeb/AFP through Getty Images
Bisignano officially binds to the agency after months of agitation in the SSA, which has seen a turning door of leadership in the midst of Doge’s efforts to review the agency modernizing its operations and reducing costs. Among the changes, Doge is promoting staff reallocations, digital infrastructure reviews and controversial subcontracting of certain administrative functions, according to sources.
Bisignano also said that it does not intend to implement valid reductions or RIF, at the agency, at least for now. “I don’t intend RIF people, okay? Because that’s the big question,” he said.
When the Wall Street veteran was appointed Trump’s choice to direct the agency, he faced a violent reaction from the Democrats and activists who said that his selection threatened the future of the Social Security program. In early May, legislators, union leaders and activists protested their selection outside the United States Capitol before the Senate vote on their nomination.
On Wednesday’s call, Bisignano seemed to enjoy the news.
“Did they know there was a protest against me? Who knows there was a protest against me?” said. “I like that protest: I want to demonstrate them so wrong, man, this will be more fun.”
“I mean, think about that: a poor child of Brooklyn, of a multigenerational home with a father who worked in the federal government, and the senators who the touch in which I am going to ruin it,” he said. “In no way, do it great, right?”
Bisignano, during the call, returned several times to his concerns about the leaks to the press, which suggests that he smells them.
“My father was a prosecutor and I am a heart detective, so I can solve things,” he said.
