In a vote of 53 to 47, the U.S. Senate confirmed the nomination of Tech CEO Frank Bisignano as Social Security Commissioner.

Bisignano, a donor to President Trump and former CEO of Payments Technology Company Fiserv, will lead federal agencies to run programs that provide retirement, survivors and disability benefits, as well as provide supplementary income for the poor.

Former commissioners and advocates for older and disabled Americans raised serious concerns about the widespread restructuring and massive layoffs of the agency, which has more than 55,000 employees and serves 73 million Americans.

Changes such as new requirements for beneficiaries, closures of regional offices, cuts in overtime pay and plans to lay off 7,000 jobs from the agency will result in longer service millions of Americans.

Senate Democrats also compared Bisignano's communication with billionaire Elon Musk's team, known as the government's efficiency ministry or road department, to attract attention.

Senator Ron Wyden, D-ore. , accusing Bisignano of Bisignano said: "He made comments before the hearing about communication with Doge and the Social Security Bureau." During Bisignano's confirmation hearing at the Finance Committee, Wyden said that a whistleblower told his office that the nominee "individually intervened to install the threshold officer... and basically approved in the middle of the night (Bisignano's insistence).

Bisignano repeatedly denied at the hearing that he had been in contact with leaders of the Social Security Agency and Doge.

"I didn't join the job in the middle of the night," he said.

Former SSA and former SSA employees said the agency’s recent problems stem from Doge’s involvement in the agency. On April 2, a group of people with disabilities advocated a federal lawsuit against SSA leader Musk and Doge. In the lawsuit, they said agent leaders “under the guidance of Elon Musk and Doge” “systematically demolished and continued to remove the core functions of the SSA, which drove millions of Americans to abandon poverty and insults.”

"Social security requires a loyal commissioner whose loyalty is to the beneficiary rather than Elon Musk," said Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Engineering, in a Senate statement on the nomination. She said Bisagnano was not that person.

"Bisiniano describes himself as the 'gatekeeper'," Altman said. "This is what he has in common with current acting commissioner Lee Dudek, who cuts staff and services on Elon Musk's path. ... Not only is he ineligible, but he has no expertise in this important program - he is dangerous for it."

At the hearing, Bisiniano told the senator that he believes the problem plaguing the agency now stems from interim commissioner Dudek, who has been working closely with Musk's team, not the governor's team itself.

"We have a acting role and you hear him in the paper every day," Bisignano said. "I don't know if it's a threshold issue. I think we have a leadership issue, which is why I hope, if I'm going to confirm that I'll be in charge of the agency."