Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent today lessened his acting-IRS Commissioner load by naming Frank Bisignano, Social Security’s commissioner, to the newly created IRS CEO post. Bisignano will do both agency jobs.
The Internal Revenue Service is about to go into full government shutdown mode (unless there’s an unlikely miracle on Capitol Hill), but no worries. It has a new top executive.
Yeah, in case you missed the sarcasm font, I’m feeling a bit snarky. But to today’s IRS personnel news.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced on his department’s website that Frank Bisignano is the IRS’ first-ever Chief Executive Officer.
The holder of this newly-created position, says Bessent, will manage and oversee all day-to-day IRS operations.
The IRS CEO will also report directly to the IRS Commissioner. Right now, that’s Bessent, who’s been acting IRS head since former short-term commish Billy Long was reassigned to be U.S. ambassador to Iceland, pending another Senate approval.
And, oh year, Bisignano will continue his current federal job as Social Security Administration commissioner.
Looks like the pool of 47’s best people is shrinking to the size of a toddler’s backyard plastic swimming pool. Snark font, but apparently true.
No Capitol Hill involvement needed: Y’all saw that reference to IRS-bounced Long awaiting ambassadorship confirmation from the government’s upper legislative chamber, right?
That process is likely part of the reason for the creation of the new IRS CEO position.
True, the new job effectively takes practical IRS operations off of Bessent’s plate, who already has to deal with a lot of other Treasury Department matters. That work overload been a concern of some, including Republicans, as the 2026 tax filing season approaches, bringing with it a slew of tax law changes that will apply to 2025 tax year filings.
The IRS CEO post also assigns those key agency operational duties to another Trump administration loyalist.
It also apparently does so by avoiding Senate confirmation for the new position. There’s no (pardon the repetition) confirmation of Treasury’s ability to bypass that process with this new position, but that’s the impression given in the announcement.
And let’s be real. If it is determined that confirmation is needed, the Trump-cowed GOP Senate would expedite the process. Bisignano then would breeze through a second Senate review. He was confirmed as the 18th SSA commissioner last May along a GOP-controlled Senate party-line vote.
Of course, who’s determining if confirmation is needed? Republicans in control of Capitol Hill and the White House with, if needed, the expected approval of the Supreme Court. Again, just being real.
IRS, SSA similarities: While I’m admittedly being a bit (okay, a lot) snide about this move and the politics, it does make some sense.
As noted, it frees up Bessent to deal with other Treasury duties for which he was selected. With what’s expected to be a challenging 2026 filing season, the IRS needs someone on hand to guide the process and make quick decisions.
There also are some similarities between the IRS and SSA, notably that both agencies are the real life faces of Uncle Sam for millions of us.
Almost every U.S. citizen and/or resident will deal at some point with the IRS. As we age, our key government contact is the Social Security Administration.
Both agencies are also looking to upgrade their technologies to make their customer services more efficient and user friendly. Bessent noted that in his announcement of Bisignano’s new IRS position.
“The IRS and SSA – two of the most public-facing and broadly impactful federal agencies – also share many of the same technological and customer service goals. This makes Mr. Bisignano a natural choice for this role,” said Bessent.
The SSA “has already made important and substantial progress, and we are pleased that he will bring this expertise to the IRS as we sharpen our focus on collections, privacy, and customer service in order to deliver better outcomes for hardworking Americans,” added the Treasury Secretary.
Privacy still paramount(?): Personally, I am glad Bessent specifically cited tax privacy concerns, especially since some of us are still a bit uneasy about what was accessed earlier this year when Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) representatives poked around IRS and SSA files.
The SSA intrusion is of particular concern after a whistleblower, the SSA’s former chief data officer, filed a report alleging that copies of that agency’s data was uploaded to a potentially insecure cloud server.
But then, it also was Bessent who gave the go-ahead for the IRS to share some of the information in its database that it collected from filers believed to be undocumented taxpayers.
IRS move challenged: A coalition of labor and government watchdog groups has challenged the IRS move. It lost its initial court request in May to halt the limited tax data sharing, but last week filed an appeal.
So, maybe Bessent’s taxpayer privacy reference was just press release lip service.
Anyway, as of today, Bisignano is the operational head honcho, aka CEO, of the IRS.
I guess we should be glad that Bessent picked him, not Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, to do double duty.
