Frank Bisignano, Social Security Administration (SSA) Commissioner and IRS CEO, stated on July 21, 2026, that he, along with other officials in the government, will continue their mission “to drive out fraud, waste, and abuse” after discovering close to $100 million in federal payments connected to deceased individuals.
The Treasury Department put out a press release announcing a brand new government-wide payment verification system designed to stop payments to dead people. “To date, Treasury has screened over 885 million payments totaling approximately $2.77 trillion as part of the new payment verification process,” the release said.
“The screening has identified more than 4,900 payments worth approximately $99 million that were associated with deceased payees,” it continued. “Those payments were returned to the originating federal agencies for review before any funds were disbursed.” Bisignano sat down for an interview on CNBC’s popular “Squawk on the Street,” right after the announcement was released.
According to Breitbart News, Bisignano placed strong emphasis on the effort to crack down on fraud and payments to dead folk, make it clear the mission is a top priority for the administration. Bisignano was asked how the fraud was discovered during the segment. “We’re stopping it, and this is great work of the vice president and the Treasury secretary, and in cooperation across the whole administration,” he said.
The SSA commissioner then praised the leadership of President Donald Trump in spearheading the partnership which spans across multiple agencies and is dedicated to rooting out fraud, waste, and abuse. “Fraud, waste, and abuse has been a platform we’ve been running on since we got here, and it’s teamwork that you see that never happened in any administration,” he explained.
“It’s only under this president’s great leadership are we able to get that type of partnership across SSA, Treasury, and all the rest of the government,” Bisignano continued. “And Treasury is the place where payments have been stopped to not pay them where they shouldn’t have gone.” The IRS CEO then stated that the war against fraud is one that never ends.
“We’re going to stay at it… We’ve done a lot of work in SSA to eliminate erroneous payments; Treasury and the whole government’s locked down on it. So I think you can count on us continuing to drive out fraud, waste, and abuse in many avenues. And you know this will be a lifelong journey here,” he told the program host.
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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave a statement to Breitbart lauding the work Bisignano has done in getting rid of waste. “With decades of experience leading some of America’s most successful companies, Frank Bisignano has brought proven executive leadership, operational excellence, and a results-driven mindset to the IRS,” Bessent said in the statement.
“He has done a terrific job delivering better service to taxpayers, eliminating waste, modernizing operations, and ensuring the agency works for the American people,” Bessent added. Bisignano also took an opportunity during the interview to set the record straight about an article from The Wall Street Journal that claims he spied on his colleagues while working at JP Morgan.
“That is an unnamed source. There are no named sources in the article. My record stands for itself,” he told the host. “Charlie [Scharf] and Mike Cavanaugh, all still great friends of mine. This is really bad journalism. None of it’s true, ever, in my whole career,” going on to add that “political reasons” are driving the “bad journalism.”
The press release from the Treasury Department revealed that the agency screened a total of 885 million payments that totaled almost $2.77 trillion as part of the new payment verification process. The screening revealed that 4,900 payments worth $99 million were connected to dead payees. It went on to say that those payments were returned to the federal agencies from which they originated and were reviewed before being disbursed.
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video