Social Security Administration head to also serve in new IRS role

Social Security Administration Commissioner Frank Bisignano will also serve in the newly created position of chief executive officer of the IRS, the Treasury secretary said Monday in a news release.

Bisignano will report to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who serves as acting IRS commissioner.

Bessent said Bisignano is “a natural choice” for the IRS role because 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.”

It was not clear if Bisignano’s appointment would require Senate confirmation, but it’s possible that it does not because Bisignano is a Senate-confirmed officer of the United States through his appointment as Social Security Administration commissioner, said H. Jefferson Powell, a professor at the Duke University School of Law and expert on the U.S. Constitution’s Appointments Clause.

Treasury did not respond to emails about whether it planned to seek confirmation.

Bessent has served as acting IRS commissioner since the ouster of Billy Long in August. The turnover at the top of the agency began in January, when then-Commissioner Danny Werfel left the IRS. Four acting commissioners served — one as briefly as a few days — before Long was confirmed in June.

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