Democrats question role of new IRS CEO who’s also leading Social Security

Three high-profile Senate Democrats — Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, and Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts — are demanding to know how the recently appointed CEO of the Internal Revenue Service, Frank Bisignano, can run the tax agency while simultaneously leading the Social Security Administration.

Earlier this month, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent named Bisignano to the newly created role as IRS CEO, even though Bisignano is already commissioner of the Social Security Administration. Bessent too has been holding two jobs, filling in as acting commissioner of the IRS while also serving as secretary of the Treasury, after ousting the previous commissioner, Billy Long.

By not naming Bisignano as the new commissioner, Bessent has been able to avoid the traditional confirmation hearing for that role, along with questions from senators about how the Social Security Administration has been performing amid a wave of cost-cutting this year under the Trump administration. 

In two new letters, one to Bisignano and the other to Bessent, the senators claimed that Bisignano’s tenure at SSA has been a disaster for beneficiaries, and the Trump administration doesn’t have the authority to create an IRS CEO position and sidestep confirmation by the Senate. 

In their letter to Bisignano, the lawmakers wrote that he has “spent the majority of [his] time throwing up bureaucratic roadblocks to make it even harder for Americans to access their earned benefits. As a result, Americans continue to experience long wait times on the phone and weeks to get an appointment in the field office.”

A properly functioning SSA and IRS are needed to oversee the wellbeing of tens of millions of Americans, Senate Democrats noted. The SSA is responsible for financially ensuring that millions of Americans annually receive their earned benefits, while the IRS is not only responsible for overseeing major tax relief programs such as the Child Tax Credit but also collecting nearly $5 trillion in federal revenue every year. Leading the SSA and the IRS should require Bisignano to be in-person to manage employees, but he would be forced to work remotely for one of his jobs at any given time.

“Americans deserve a full-time commissioner at each agency who is wholly dedicated to its mission, not someone who is simply mailing it in,” the senators wrote. “Given the vital nature of these agencies, the American people deserve to know how you plan to handle this challenge.”