In this newly created position, Frank Bisignano will oversee the IRS’s day-to-day operations as CEO and report directly to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced on Oct. 6 that Frank Bisignano, the head of the Social Security Administration (SSA), will also serve as CEO of the IRS.
Although the Treasury secretary will still serve as acting IRS commissioner, Bisignano will now take on the new role of CEO of the IRS, “managing the organization and overseeing all day-to-day operations” while reporting directly to Bessent.
“Frank is a businessman with an exceptional track record of driving growth and efficiency in the private and now public sector,” Bessent said in a statement.
“Under his leadership at the SSA, he 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.”
Bisignano is “a natural choice” for the role because the IRS and the SSA have many of the same technological and customer service goals and are “two of the most public-facing and broadly impactful federal agencies,” according to the Treasury Department statement.
Less than two months after the Senate confirmed William “Billy” Long to serve as IRS commissioner, the White House said that President Donald Trump was replacing the former Missouri congressman as head of the IRS.
This move established Bessent as acting commissioner of the IRS and moved Long into the position of ambassador to Iceland.
Multiple other officials—including Doug O’Donnell, Melanie Krause, and Gary Shapley—served as acting commissioners of the IRS this year before eventually stepping down or being removed from the role.
Bisignano, former CEO of technology company Fiserv, has led the SSA since the Senate confirmed him in May. He faced pushback from Democrats who were concerned he would implement Department of Government Efficiency-style cuts at the SSA, which oversees critical entitlements, including retirement and disability benefits for millions of Americans.
Bisignano said last month that the Trump administration was not considering raising the retirement age for Social Security, following comments he made in a Fox interview the day before, when he said “everything’s being considered, will be considered,” when asked directly about the retirement age.
By Jacob Burg
