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SSA will get call wait times down to ‘single digits’ using AI, commissioner tells employees

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2 months ago

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The new head of the Social Security Administration is looking to get call wait times down to “single digits,” as part of this strategy to make the agency a “digital-first organization.”

An SSA official told Federal News Network that the agency’s monthly average call wait time dropped from 30 minutes in January to just about 12 minutes in May, when including callers who were given a “callback” option and didn’t have to remain on hold. SSA counts callbacks as a zero-minute wait time on its customer service metrics.

SSA Commissioner Frank Bisignano told employees in an all-hands meeting on Thursday that this has been the agency’s “best performance” since it started tracking these metrics. But said he plans to cut call wait times to a fraction of that using artificial intelligence tools.

“We’re going to get that thing down to single digits,” he said.

According to its 800 number performance dashboard, SSA’s average speed to answer calls, so far in fiscal 2025, is about 20 minutes, and less than half of all calls are answered. SSA answers about 390,000 calls each day.

An SSA employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said about 70% of the agency’s callers are handled by callbacks.

At the time of reporting, the current wait time for a caller to reach an SSA representative is an hour and 38 minutes, if the caller chooses to remain on the line and doesn’t request a callback. For callers who do request a callback, the wait time is an hour and 36 minutes. More than 3,259 callers who didn’t opt for a callback are waiting on hold, and more than 22,000 callers are waiting for a callback.

Bisignano, a former Wall Street executive who led a financial tech company before joining the Trump administration, told employees he was “using AI before it was AI,” and oversaw financial organizations that processed a higher volume of payments than SSA does.

“Much bigger orgs, much bigger problems — but not as important. Can you see the difference? Here we do $1.5 trillion a year. In my last job, we did $2.5 trillion a day. This is more important than that, though,” he said.

“I understand the work you do. I may have not done it in the federal government, but it’s the same work,” he added.

Bisignano said he’s also focused on driving down a backlog of more than 6 million pending actions, and will tour a processing center in Queens, New York, on Friday.

An SSA official said these tasks at SSA processing centers “require further manual development and cannot be automated.”

“I’m going to go look at why we have 6.1 million items in backlog. That’s going away. We’ll use tools, we’ll keep rolling it out,” Bisignano said. “We’re going to win at field offices, we’re going to win at call centers. We’re going to win at processing centers. And I promise I will roll up my sleeves and work, because I actually know how to do this.”

Bisignano said SSA will be able to implement new tools and provide better customer service to beneficiaries within his first year on the job.

“This is a six-year term, but it’s going to be less than a one-year job. I’m not saying we’re going to be done with this in a year. Doesn’t mean I’m leaving in a year, but that’s my time frame for this. We’ve waited too long. There’s too many items in the backlog. There’s too many people waiting,” he said.

SSA’s monthly average call wait time dropped from 30 minutes in January to just about 12 minutes in May. SSA Commissioner Frank Bisignano says the agency will get that wait time down to “single digits” through automation (Source: Social Security Administration)

SSA faces a growing workload. Former President Joe Biden signed the Social Security Fairness Act into law before leaving office in January, which gives larger monthly Social Security payments to 3 million public sector employees, retirees, spouses and surviving spouses.

The legislation eliminated the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset — two longstanding provisions of Social Security that reduce or eliminate benefits for certain government retirees, including Civil Service Retirement System annuitants, as well as teachers, firefighters, police officers and others who have worked in a public sector position.

An SSA official said delivering benefits to eligible individuals under the Social Security Fairness Act is a “priority workload,” and that the agency has used automation to expedite over $15.1 billion in “long-delayed retroactive payments” to more than 2.3 million individuals affected by WEP and GPO.

The official said SSA is “working to exceed” its estimate that this workload will be completed by early November, and is prioritizing 360,000 “more complex cases” that could not be processed through automation.

“These cases require additional time to manually update the records and pay both retroactive benefits and the new benefits amount,” the official said.

An SSA employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, told Federal News Network that the agency has started a “massive push” to process these 360,000 cases, “at the expense of other workloads.”

The agency official, however, said “SSA is not setting aside or deferring work as it prioritizes the SSFA cases.”

Bisignano told employees that SSA will overhaul its “MySSA” website, so that more beneficiaries — primarily retirees and Americans with disabilities — can get their questions answered online, instead of over the phone or in person at field offices.

“I want to know every transaction that’s done on the phone or in a field office that actually can be done on the web,” he said.

Before Bisignano took office, SSA under the Trump administration proposed and walked back several plans to limit the agency’s level of phone support to beneficiaries — forcing them to either seek help in-person at field offices or online.

Recent analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities finds that more than a quarter of senior citizens in the United States live more than an hour’s drive away from their nearest SSA field office, and more than half live 30 minutes away from the closest facility.

SSA in mid-April launched an AI “anti-fraud” check on all claims filed over the phone, which added an extra three days to processing.

SSA currently has its lowest level of staffing in 50 years, but Bisignano said the agency will increase its IT modernization spending to acquire tools that will make employees more productive.

“I’m glad that we’re in business together — and yes, it’s okay to call government business. We need to modernize everything we do. And yes, we’ll spend the money on it, and I can guarantee you that your job will become better,” he said.

SSA received the lowest employee satisfaction scores among large agencies last year, according to data compiled by the Partnership for Public Service’s Best Places to Work in the Federal Government scorecard.

Bisignano said SSA’s upcoming IT investments will give employees the tools they need to do their jobs effectively and will improve morale.

“We’re going to invest in you, we’re going to invest in your work. We’re going to invest in a client experience, if I may call it that. And when the employee experience improves and the client experience improves, you’re winning, right? We could be the model agency,” he said.

The Trump administration is proposing a $12.7 billion budget for SSA in fiscal 2026 — a flat budget, compared to its current spending levels. But Bisignano said SSA will secure the funding for IT modernization, because these improvements are a priority for President Donald Trump.

“It is very important to the President that Social Security performs great,” he said.

The post SSA will get call wait times down to ‘single digits’ using AI, commissioner tells employees first appeared on Federal News Network.

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GOP Senator John Thune Quietly BLOCKS Trump Recess Appointments with Sneaky Procedural Maneuver — Launches Series of Pro Forma Sessions to Keep Senate in Fake “Session” During August Recess

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9 hours ago

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August 3, 2025

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Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R‑SD) has unveiled a procedural scheme to block President Donald Trump from making any critical appointments during the August recess, effectively aiding the Democrats’ obstructionist agenda.

Under the U.S. Constitution, the president can make “recess appointments,” temporary appointments to federal positions, if the Senate is in recess and not conducting business. These appointments don’t require immediate Senate confirmation and can last until the end of the next session of Congress.

But there’s a loophole: if the Senate holds pro forma sessions, very short, symbolic meetings where no actual business is conducted, then technically, the Senate is still in session. That means the president cannot legally make recess appointments during that time.

John Thune has quietly secured unanimous‑consent for a paper‑thin Senate schedule through the Trump appointee confirmation deadline, ensuring only pro forma sessions on five key dates in early August.

Under the agreement, the chamber will adjourn after today’s business and reconvene without conducting any votes or business on:

  • Tue, Aug 5 – 1:00 p.m.
  • Fri, Aug 8 – 1:05 p.m.
  • Tue, Aug 12 – 8:00 a.m.
  • Fri, Aug 15 – 10:15 a.m.
  • Tue, Aug 19 – 10:00 a.m.
  • Fri, Aug 22 – 9:00 a.m.
  • Tue, Aug 26 – 12:00 p.m.
  • Fri, Aug 29 – 7:00 a.m.

WATCH:

Thune’s pro forma blueprint comes amid mounting pressure from Donald Trump, who has demanded the Senate remain open until all 150+ administration nominees are confirmed.

Under the Recess Appointments Clause, a president may only install nominees without Senate approval if both chambers are in formal recess for at least 10 days. By convening the Senate just long enough every few days, Thune blocks the possibility of Trump making unilateral appointees.

The Senate went into its August recess without confirming all of Trump’s pending judicial and district‑level appointments.

By the time lawmakers left town on Saturday evening, no deal had been reached to move dozens of Trump’s nominees, including U.S. district court picks, through final floor votes.

Only a small handful of nominees (such as Jeanine Pirro to be U.S. Attorney in D.C.) had advanced. Otherwise, nominees remained stalled in committees or waiting for cloture roll‑calls on the executive calendar.

Roughly 150–160 executive and judicial nominations, including over a dozen district court judges and U.S. attorney nominations, remained scheduled but unconfirmed.

The post GOP Senator John Thune Quietly BLOCKS Trump Recess Appointments with Sneaky Procedural Maneuver — Launches Series of Pro Forma Sessions to Keep Senate in Fake “Session” During August Recess appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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‘That’s What I Call Results!’: Trump Admin Saves Jobs, Kicks 1500 Non-English-Speaking Truckers Off the Road

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9 hours ago

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August 3, 2025

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Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy revealed that there have been about 1,500 truck drivers who do not speak English taken off the roads as part of a push to ensure foreign truck drivers are not causing accidents.

Back in 2016, the Obama administration stopped enforcing English proficiency requirements for truckers, according to a report from The Daily Signal.

But in May, Duffy issued a guidance making clear that truck drivers who cannot demonstrate a proficiency in English cannot drive.

The 1,500 drivers were taken off the roads within the first 3o days of the rules once more being enforced, according to The Daily Signal.

“Since I took action to enforce language proficiency requirements for truckers, our state partners have put roughly 1,500 unqualified drivers out of service. That’s what I call results!” Duffy posted on X.

“If you can’t read or speak our national language — ENGLISH — we won’t let your truck endanger the driving public.”

He added, “America First = Safety First.”

Duffy’s concerns were far from unfounded.

In January, there was a truck driver involved in a fatal crash that had to use a language interpreter for the post-crash investigation, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

Another incident from 2019 involved a truck driver who could not proficiently speak English speeding through signs that warned of steep grades and dangerous curves, all at more than 100 miles per hour.

Four people died in that crash, per the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

President Donald Trump had likewise insisted with an April executive order that the move centered on public safety.

“They should be able to read and understand traffic signs, communicate with traffic safety, border patrol, agricultural checkpoints, and cargo weight-limit station officers,” the order said of truck drivers.

They also “need to provide feedback to their employers and customers and receive related directions in English,” a position the order called “common sense.”

“It is the policy of my Administration to support America’s truckers and safeguard our roadways by enforcing the commonsense English-language requirement for commercial motor vehicle drivers and removing needless regulatory burdens that undermine the working conditions of America’s truck drivers,” the notice added.

“This order will help ensure a safe, secure, and efficient motor carrier industry.”

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.

The post ‘That’s What I Call Results!’: Trump Admin Saves Jobs, Kicks 1500 Non-English-Speaking Truckers Off the Road appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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Slovenia Imposes Arms Embargo on Israel, Citing Gaza Conflict

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9 hours ago

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August 3, 2025

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via Wikimedia Commons

Slovenia has imposed an arms embargo on Israel, banning the export, import, and transit of weapons to and from the country.

This decision was announced by Prime Minister Robert Golob following a government session on July 31, 2025.

Slovenia claims to be the first European Union member to take such a step, citing the EU’s inability to act due to internal disagreements.

The government stated that no permits for military exports to Israel have been issued since October 2023, when the conflict in Gaza began.

Officials emphasized that the embargo is an independent measure to address the humanitarian situation in Gaza. Slovenia has repeatedly called for a ceasefire and increased aid deliveries to the region.

In early July 2025, Slovenia declared two Israeli ministers, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, persona non grata, barring them from entry.

This action was based on their public statements regarding the conflict. Earlier, in June 2024, Slovenia recognized Palestinian statehood, joining countries like Ireland, Norway, and Spain in this move.

The conflict in Gaza started after the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israeli territory, which resulted in over 1,200 deaths and the taking of hostages.

Israel responded with a military operation aimed at dismantling Hamas infrastructure. Reports from Gaza’s health ministry indicate significant casualties, with ongoing international efforts to negotiate truces and provide aid.

Several other nations have taken similar diplomatic steps, including France, Britain, and Canada announcing potential recognition of a Palestinian state. Australia has also indicated that recognizing Palestinian statehood is under consideration.

Israel has criticized these declarations, arguing they could reward Hamas for its actions.

Israeli officials dismissed Slovenia’s embargo as insignificant, noting that Israel does not procure any defense materials from Slovenia.

An unnamed official stated that the country buys nothing from Slovenia, not even minor items.

Within the EU, there is growing pressure for measures against Israel, with Sweden and the Netherlands advocating for suspending parts of the EU-Israel Association Agreement.

The European Commission has proposed limiting Israel’s participation in the Horizon research program, though Germany opposes such steps.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul expressed concerns about Israel’s potential diplomatic isolation during a visit to Jerusalem.

The United States remains a key ally to Israel, with President Donald Trump warning that recognizing Palestinian statehood might benefit Hamas.

U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff recently met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to advance Gaza truce talks. These efforts aim to address the humanitarian crisis and secure a ceasefire.

The post Slovenia Imposes Arms Embargo on Israel, Citing Gaza Conflict appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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