The Treasury Department startled observers this week by creating a new executive position inside the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Frank Bisignano, the current Commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA), will now also serve as the IRS’s first Chief Executive Officer.
Treasury Secretary and Acting IRS Commissioner Scott Bessent announced the appointment Monday, describing Bisignano as “a businessman with an exceptional track record of driving growth and efficiency in the private and now public sector.” Bessent added that at the SSA, Bisignano “has already made important and substantial progress.” His expertise, Bessent said, would help sharpen the IRS’s “focus on collections, privacy, and customer service.”
The announcement also sought to justify the unusual dual appointment, claiming,
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.
Bisignano’s résumé is extensive. As chairman and CEO of Fiserv and First Data, he oversaw massive financial networks handling trillions in daily transactions and led one of the largest technology mergers in corporate history. Earlier, he held top executive roles at J.P. Morgan Chase and Citigroup, where he managed global transaction systems and large-scale digital integrations. The official record portrays a career defined by efficiency and digital optimization — principles now being imported into government.
But the consolidation of authority across Treasury, the IRS, and the SSA signals more than a bureaucratic reshuffle. It represents a structural shift that quietly places vast amounts of taxpayerdata under a single executive hierarchy. In the name of efficiency, the administration has effectively merged two of the nation’s most data-heavy agencies — one inside Treasury (IRS) and one historically independent (SSA) — under Treasury’s command, giving one unelected appointee extraordinary reach over both.
Legally, the IRS was meant to be insulated from politics. Created in 1862 under the Department of the Treasury, it enforces tax law and collects revenue under the Internal Revenue Code. Traditionally, it has been led by a single Senate-confirmed commissioner serving a fixed five-year term — an arrangement designed to ensure continuity and independence. That structure, and the stability it once promised, has now eroded.
Few institutions in Washington have been as chronically mistrusted or scandal-plagued as the IRS. From politically targeted audits to lost emails and data leaks, the agency’s credibility has long been in decline. To critics, it has grown into a bloated, incompetent, and unaccountable bureaucracy. Some lawmakers have even proposed dismantling it altogether. Last January, then-president-elect Donald Trump promised an alternative: an “External Revenue Service,” tasked to “collect our Tariffs, Duties, and all Revenue that come from Foreign sources” instead of “taxing our Great People.”
Instead, the administration has opted for a corporate-style overhaul. Bessent now serves as both Treasury secretary and acting IRS commissioner, while Bisignano will function as the IRS’s first CEO, managing daily operations. The structure mirrors a private-sector hierarchy more than a federal agency — and carries no clear legal foundation. The Treasury has cited no statutory authority for creating the role, and Congress has not weighed in.
Yet the new structure blurs accountability and concentrates vast amounts of sensitive data in a few executive hands. For an agency long distrusted for its opacity and reach, the change looks less like modernization and more like consolidation of control.
Data access has become the central fault line of the IRS during President Donald Trump’s second term. The agency controls the country’s most detailed financial records, and recent efforts to expand data sharing have turned that control into a political flashpoint.
According to public reports, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) — specifically its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unit — sought and received access to IRS records for immigration-related investigations. The move sparked internal resistance among senior IRS officials and contributed to a string of resignations. At the same time, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by billionaire “special government employee” Elon Musk, has pushed for sweeping “data-modernization” across federal agencies. At Treasury and the IRS, that effort has included integrating software systems through a single “mega API” and dismantling legacy IT teams such as 18F, the group behind the IRS’s free Direct File service. The push for rapid data integration added to the turbulence already surrounding the agency, fueling unease among the dwindling staff and watchdogs over privacy, control, and the speed of technological change.
As reported by finance website Kiplinger in August, the IRS has gone through seven commissioners or acting commissioners in 2025 — nearly one per month.
The departures tell the story. Danny Werfel, appointed under Biden, resigned on inauguration day. Doug O’Donnell left after refusing to sign the DHS data-sharing agreement. Melanie Krause followed, reportedly cut out of final discussions before Treasury approved the deal. Michael Faulkender and Billy Long each lasted only weeks before being replaced amid friction over the IRS’s independence and role. By late summer, Bessent was serving as both Treasury secretary and acting IRS commissioner.
The report was amplified by financial analyst Catherine Austin Fitts, who observed,
Ever wonder why multiple IRS heads would rather be fired or resign than share IRS data with DHS? And why Trump and Bessent are insistent on DOGE’s private contractors and DHS having your personal financial information?
The question points to a rather troubling direction.
The creation of an IRS “CEO” may sound like modernization. In reality, it sidesteps Congress and consolidates the government’s largest data engines under one command. The move aligns with the administration’s partnership with Palantir, the CIA-seeded data-mining company brought in to “eliminate data silos” across government. In practice, that means fusing the very systems once kept separate to protect Americans’ privacy.
The IRS has long operated as more than a tax collector. It monitors income, employment, assets, and healthcare coverage. Treasury tracks bank transfers, corporate ownership, and international transactions. The SSA anchors it all with identity data — names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and benefits. Together, these datasets create a live, searchable map of nearly every American’s financial and even personal life.
Once Treasury and the IRS share real-time access with agencies such as the DHS, that data can feed immigration enforcement, criminal probes, or intelligence operations against those labeled as “domestic terrorists” or “enemies from within.”
The new CEO structure doesn’t just streamline management — it formalizes this merger of information power. For an agency already steeped in unconstitutional surveillance and weaponization, the shift further transforms the IRS into a central node of government domestic intelligence. Efficiency becomes the language of control. And the question is no longer how much Americans “owe” in taxes, but how closely they are being watched.