In a surprise announcement out of Washington, the U.S. Department of the Treasury confirmed that Frank Bisignano, the SSA’s current administrator, would take on an additional role as CEO of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
The appointment, made on Monday, has provoked anger among members of Congress and taxpayer groups. Bisignano, the previous chief of financial technology firm Fiserv, will now be in charge of the day-to-day management of the two agencies. He works directly under Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who is also serving as interim IRS Commissioner.
That puts Bisignano at the top of not just the nation’s disability and retirement income, but also its tax collection and enforcement equipment—two of the most powerful and advanced federal agencies in the United States.
Questions of leadership at a critical time
Most experts firmly believe that the IRS is in a critical state. In a CNBC interview, former IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel attested that “it’s crunch time at the IRS,” describing chaos in the agency’s leadership.
There have been six people who’ve served as IRS Commissioner or Acting Commissioner since January, including President Donald Trump’s appointee Billy Long, confirmed in June but removed just two months later. With no deputy commissioner on board, Werfel warned that high turnover can slow down decision-making as the IRS readies for the 2026 tax season.
That’s too much volatility at the top of a very complex organisation,” Werfel said. “If the management isn’t stable, it’s taxpayers who wait in line and bear the cost.”
In the meantime, the agency has been working to implement a number of tax law changes that are included in President Trump’s newly signed economic law, which will directly affect returns filed for 2026. Adding to the dilemma, a recent Treasury Inspector General report showed the IRS lost nearly 19% of their staff in crucial operation areas during the past year.
“This doesn’t smell like stability at the IRS,” said Alex Muresianu, a senior policy analyst with the Tax Foundation. “This is another stopgap solution in an extremely volatile moment.”
Why the move is raising eyebrows
It is all but unheard of in U.S. history that a single person would lead both the Social Security Administration and the IRS. Both of them handle extremely sensitive information—financial, personal, and in some cases, medical—that was meant to be segregated.
The supporters are concerned that double leadership would blur those lines. Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, stated that it “raises red flags about privacy and oversight.”
“SSA workers are not able to access people’s tax information, and IRS staff cannot see disability or medical information,” Altman said. “Those barriers must be absolute.”
She also warned that combining both agencies under the authority of one person could spread resources too thin, slowing service and response times for tens of millions of Americans.
Advocates call the decision “unwise”
Not everybody is pleased with this experiment of dual leadership. The National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare called the action “unwise” and “unprecedented”.
Its president, Max Richtman, faulted the administration’s action, as Social Security needs a full-time administrator—especially with the agency short-staffed and grappling with new operating issues.
This agency is too important to have a half-time administrator,” Richtman said. “Seniors, people with disabilities, and their families deserve someone who will be able to give full-time attention to Social Security.”
While SSA has come in for criticism for cutting staff and implementing more complex rules that have complicated it for recipients to change payment information or make use of direct deposit facilities, critics say that delegating IRS duties to Bisignano’s orbit might just compound the problems. What It Means for Taxpayers and Beneficiaries
In the meantime, Treasury reports that Bisignano will be relying on her executive teams at both agencies to handle daily business. But taxpayers and Social Security recipients are expecting a more streamlined operation and better prioritisation with tax season and benefit announcements on the horizon.
Though Bisignano is Professor of Management and Professor of Technology, Americans will be keeping their eyes on him to see if he can merge the two positions without holding up their services or messing up data management.
Come the 2026 filing season, this much is certain: the Social Security and IRS are both on the verge of change, and the consequences—both for taxpayers, retirees, and the government—are higher than ever.
