During a Senate Finance Committee hearing last week, Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) questioned Frank Bisignano, President Trump's nominee to be Commissioner of Social Security Administration, about potential improvements to the agency.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Mr. Bisognano, congratulations on your confirmation.
00:13My mom, who is a Social Security recipient, told me I should really be at this hearing
00:19and kick the tires, make sure you're qualified for the job.
00:23The Social Security Administration needs skilled leadership.
00:27They need effective administrators and people who will level with Congress about the finances
00:35of this program and all the rest.
00:39It appears, based on your strong background, that you possess the requisite skills to carry
00:45out this mission.
00:48I can tell you, as someone who's represented the state of Indiana for a number of years,
00:53lots of my constituents contact our offices about challenges they're facing with the administration.
01:01Specifically, they report long hold times on the phone, being turned away from walk-in
01:08services, difficulty scheduling appointments with local Social Security field offices.
01:15If confirmed, do you commit to working with my office to ensure that my constituents,
01:21people like my mom, their cases and concerns are addressed in a speedy and thorough manner?
01:28Yes, sir.
01:29All right.
01:30In addition to individual cases brought to you by my and other congressional offices,
01:35do you commit to working to ensure that the Social Security Administration provides robust
01:41customer service to all Americans?
01:44Yes, sir.
01:46Along with long wait times and other lapses in customer service, my constituents report
01:51a high volume of errors being made by Social Security payment centers.
01:56Those errors are particularly frequent when processing disability payments, and these
02:03errors can take months to resolve and correct, creating stress and uncertainty for beneficiaries.
02:10I don't know why there are so many errors.
02:13Do you commit to finding out?
02:16Yeah, I've said that a 1% error rate, which the Inspector General reports, I believe is
02:23probably five digits, needs to move five digits to the right, you know, decimal, starting
02:31with a decimal point.
02:33I think we'll do all the root cause analysis, we'll do all the process engineering and everything
02:37that's required to get to why we have them and how to eliminate them.
02:43Sounds workmanlike.
02:44That's what I would want.
02:48You have an extensive background in the payment services industry, including overseeing large
02:52complex payment systems.
02:55How exactly would you apply this previous experience to improve the payment processing
03:00systems of the administration?
03:03Well, I think one thing is about this error rate.
03:08I think we have to understand it, and in there we're going to find a lot of opportunity to
03:13improve.
03:14You know, I think when we look at what we do every day and how we do it, I do also say
03:21this idea of the phone rings, it takes us on average 20 plus minutes to answer it, we
03:27only answer half the calls.
03:28When we understand why all those phone calls come, we can figure out how to serve the American
03:33public a lot better.
03:35So to me, the job is to analyze everything we do.
03:41I know there's a lot of stats out there.
03:43I'm not in the department, I'm not doing anything there, but I look at all the data it produces
03:49and I see a land of opportunity.
03:52There's a lot of conversation in our country, within Congress, about artificial intelligence
03:59and the promise it might bring to large organizations, efficiencies and reduction of errors and all
04:06the rest.
04:08So in the context of improvements at the Social Security Administration, I'm impressed by
04:13the potential that AI might have to enhance government service.
04:20As a former tech executive, do you have thoughts about how AI might be integrated into your
04:26service delivery and improve operations for the American people?
04:30Yeah.
04:31I think, you know, originally when people hear you say you're going to apply AI, they're
04:36concerned, you know, this is a very vulnerable population and we have to be available.
04:42And that's why I like to say we're going to meet people where they want to be met.
04:46If they want to be met on the phone, we'll answer the phone.
04:49If they're going to come in the field office, we'll be available and, you know, obviously
04:55on the web.
04:56But we're also going to improve the jobs of the people within the agency, right?
05:02We can do a lot of what they do through AI and be able to get to answers faster.
05:07I think AI doesn't only have to be client-facing, it needs to be helping out people in the organization
05:14do their jobs better.
05:15I think it will help us understand what the right staffing level is.
05:19I know we talk a lot about the staffing level here, but we don't really know what the right
05:23staffing level is.
05:25And I think that will help us across the board.
05:28You know, I like to say, and I've said before, AI is just technology.
05:33We were using AI before it was called AI.
05:36Yes, sir.
05:38Thank you for answering my questions, Chairman.