Social Security Commissioner Bisignano Named ‘CEO’ of IRS

Frank Bisignano

The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced Monday that Social Security Administration Commissioner Frank Bisignano will also serve in the newly created position of CEO of the IRS and will oversee operations in both government agencies.

The Treasury statement said that Bisignano will report directly to Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, who is continuing in his role as acting IRS commissioner. Bessent, named acting commissioner in August, is the first treasury secretary to directly manage the IRS.

The unprecedented move to have one executive oversee the two agencies comes nearly one week into a federal government shutdown during which the IRS has kept more than 74,000 workers employed and Social Security has kept more than 45,000 workers employed and intends to continue “accurate and timely payment of benefits.”

Bessent said in a statement that Bisignano had “an exceptional track record of driving growth and efficiency in the private and now public sector,” and the Treasury announcement termed Bisignano a “natural choice” for the role.

Bisignano previously served as the president and CEO of Fiserv Inc., CEO of First Data Corp. and chief operating officer of JPMorganChase. The U.S. Senate confirmed Bisignano as Social Security commissioner in May.

Social Security advocates questioned Monday’s announcement. Nancy Altman, president of the advocacy group Social Security Works, said in a statement that Bisignano’s “divided attention will create a bottleneck that makes the inevitable problems that arise even harder to correct.”

Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, another advocacy group, called Bisignano’s new appointment “an unprecedented—and unwise—move,” adding, “We have criticized many of Bisignano’s decisions as SSA commissioner, but this agency is too important to have a part-time leader.”

From the start of President Donald Trump’s second term until August 8, when Bessent became acting commissioner, the IRS had three acting commissioners and one confirmed commissioner: former U.S. Representative Billy Long, who headed the agency for less than two months before being named as the U.S. ambassador to Iceland.