Social Security Chief Says He Didn’t Know What the Job Was When Trump Nominated Him: ‘So I’m Googling…’

Photo by Michael Brochstein/Sipa USA, Sipa via AP Images

Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano revealed he did not know what the job entailed when President Donald Trump nominated him for the post in December.

The Senate confirmed Bisignano this month in a party-line vote.

Bisignano, a Trump donor and former CEO of the payments company Fiserv, made unscripted remarks to managers at the Social Security Administration on Wednesday for about 90 minutes, according to reporter Jory Heckman of WFED in Washington, D.C.

The new commissioner addressed concerns about layoffs as the Trump administration has already laid off tens of thousands of workers at various federal agencies. Last month, a spokesperson for the administration said about 2,500 workers at the agency accepted buyout offers. That came after the administration said in February it planned to lay off about 7,000 employees. Trump has repeatedly maligned the agency by falsely claiming it was issuing payments to dead people who had been born in the 1800s.

“I have no intention to RIF people,” Bisignano said in his remarks, using the acronym for “reduction in force.”

“We’ve got a lot of turmoil. I think we reassigned a lot of people,” WFED quoted him as saying. “I guarantee you, we’re going to get the job done, and my dream is to not have to let people go.”

At one point, Bisignano explained he used Google to find out what the Social Security commissioner does.

“I don’t think the commissioner of Social Security is like a globally known title. It is to you, right? But, like, it wasn’t to me,” he said. “I’m like, ‘Well, what am I gonna do?’ So I’m Googling ‘Social Security.’ That’s one of my great skills, I’m one of the great Googlers on the East Coast … I’m like, ‘What the heck’s the commissioner of Social Security?’”

Elsewhere in his address, Bisignano said the agency will increasingly rely on artificial intelligence.

“The phone has to have artificial intelligence to do the work. We can all do this in a year, and then your jobs will be more enriching,” he said. “The reason we get so many phone calls is because half the people have to call twice.”