WASHINGTON, D.C. — Wyoming’s 130,000 Social Security recipients will now be counting on Frank Bisignano to make sure the monthly checks are sent on time, after a battle in the U.S. Senate went the Republicans’ way Tuesday.
U.S. Sens. Cynthia Lummis and John Barrasso, Wyoming Republicans, helped get the banking industry executive confirmed as the Social Security Administration commissioner on a strictly party-line vote, 53-47.
Lummis told Cowboy State Daily after the vote that the former JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup executive will help address “understaffing impacting all six Social Security offices in Wyoming, as well as the closure of the Cody office.”
Barrasso said Bisignano, a New York City native and currently the CEO of Milwaukee-based financial services company Fiserv, is “committed to modernizing and improving customer service."
“I’m confident Commissioner Bisignano will ensure Wyoming’s seniors have timely access to the benefits they depend on,” the Senate Majority Whip told Cowboy State Daily after the vote.
‘Pathway To Privatization’
Senate Democrats painted a far different picture, not just of Bisignano but of what they see as President Donald Trump’s plan to run the entitlement program into the ground on purpose so that it falls into the hands of Wall Street eventually.
The Trump administration has not proposed privatization and has repeatedly promised to maintain benefits to the approximately 70 million recipients across the country, mostly retirees and their dependents. The Wyoming delegation of Barrasso, Lummis and Republican U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman has emphasized those points.
Democrats agree that Trump cannot take unilateral action to slash the benefits, nor to privatize the program created by Congress in 1935.
But they said Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by tech CEO Elon Musk, are paving the way for massive changes down the road.
They say Trump, Musk and others are undermining the agency with staffing cuts, identification requirements, complaints of widespread fraud, and other measures.
“Lay the groundwork for Americans to miss their checks, and when they do, immediately write off anybody that complains as a fraud,” Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Finance Committee, said Tuesday. He said the “strategy” is to put senior citizens through “a maze of red tape … that is also a pathway to privatization.”
Added Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts: “Donald Trump and Elon Musk can’t legally cut Social Security benefits, but what Trump and Musk are now doing is cutting access to being able to get your Social Security benefits started, which has a very similar effect for people who don’t get what they’ve earned all their lives.”
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D- Rhode Island, piled on. He called DOGE workers at the agency “muskrats” who “broke” the system and said there are “private equity guys and tech bros” waiting in the wings to take control. Like Wyden, he specifically warned of privatization — though on that point, Whitehouse added: “I hope I’m wrong.”
Chicken Little
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, refuted Whitehouse and defended Musk’s cost-cutting efforts.
“It’s amazing to me to listen my Democratic colleagues talking like Chicken Little, ‘The Sky Is Falling.’” Cornyn said. “I heard the senator from Rhode Island suggest we are trying to privatize Social Security. There’s no one, absolutely no one, suggesting that. This is what’s called a straw man: You erect a phony argument, you knock it down, and you claim victory.”
Added Cornyn: “The truth is that Mr. Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency should be applauded for their efforts to root out waste, fraud and abuse. And you would think taxpayers, the same taxpayers our colleagues represent in their states, would applaud this effort.”
Cornyn said the Musk-DOGE efforts might help put a dent in the nation’s $37 trillion debt. He said he is “grateful” to Musk for “what strikes me as an act of patriotism.” He noted Musk is leaving DOGE and said the group’s work “must go on.”
Allegation Of Lying To Committee
Wyden charged Tuesday that Bisignano, well before the vote on his confirmation, outright lied about his involvement with DOGE at the Social Security Administration.
“This nominee lied multiple times to myself, my staff, and members of the Finance Committee” about the involvement, Wyden said on the floor Tuesday.
His allegation, publicly echoed by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, was based on an anonymous whistleblower report.
Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, refuted Wyden late last week when the Oregon senator first brought it up.
Barrasso sits on the Finance Committee and was part of the razor-thin majority that sent Bisignano’s nomination to the floor in March. A Barrasso spokeswoman did not respond to a Cowboy State Daily inquiry Tuesday about the lying allegation specifically.
Hageman, who has faced many questions at town halls over Social Security, did not reply to email inquiries about the Tuesday vote.
In a March email to Cowboy State Daily, she offered a message to constituents who fear the checks they receive are now in jeopardy: “Your entitlements remain legally protected and secure under President Trump and the Republicans in Congress.”
Bisignano will replace interim Social Security Administration Commissioner Leland Dudek for a term that runs to 2031.
Sean Barry can be reached at: Sean@CowboyStateDaily.com
