WASHINGTON — As Democrats alleged “bedlam” at the Social Security Administration, President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the agency denied he has intervened to help install officials backed by billionaire Elon Musk’s cost-cutting organization.

During a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Tuesday, nominee Frank Bisignano was questioned about his involvement with Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency as he awaits a Senate confirmation vote. While congressional Republicans have largely backed Musk’s efforts, Democrats have accused DOGE of haphazardly buying out or firing thousands of workers at the understaffed Social Security agency, undermining its performance.

“Americans need to hear Mr. Bisignano’s vision for improving Social Security, not dismantling it,” said Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, the committee’s top-ranking Democrat. “They deserve to hear a clear rejection of Elon Musk’s view that Social Security is some Ponzi scheme perpetrating fraud on the American people.”

Wyden said he is hearing reports of “bedlam” at the agency and that senior Social Security staff members have told him “they were short-staffed even before DOGE arrived, how they can’t respond on the phone, the website is crashing, and seniors are getting lost in the system.”

Bisignano, CEO of Fiserv, a payment processing firm, said of DOGE: “I’ve run a quality control and efficiency program in companies my whole life. I’m happy to work with anybody who can help us.”

But the nominee said, “I’m not at the Social Security Administration,” and that he had not spoken with Leland Dudek, the acting commissioner.

“That sounds like a reassuring response, but unfortunately it’s not true,” Wyden countered.

Wyden said an agency whistleblower told his staff that Bisignano insisted on approving DOGE hirings at SSA.

“The whistleblower said you personally intervened to get DOGE officials installed,” Wyden said, including one in the “middle of the night.”

“I was not involved in onboarding anybody in the middle of the night,” Bisignano replied.

“I don’t know about the whisteblowers,” he said in response to later questions.

Last week, Maryland-based U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander temporarily barred DOGE from accessing Social Security data on millions of Americans. “The DOGE Team is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion,” the judge wrote.

Wyden asked Bisignano during the 2 1/2 hour hearing: “Will you lock DOGE out of the Social Security database?”

“I’m going to do whatever is required to protect the information that is private information,” he replied.

The SSA processes retirement and other payments to 73 million people. It was headed until late last year by Martin O’ Malley, a former Baltimore mayor, Maryland governor and 2016 presidential candidate.

Committee Republicans broadly backed Bisignano’s appointment on Tuesday.

“You are the person that needs to have this job,” committee chairman Mike Crapo, an Idaho Republican, told him.

Crapo sought to offer assurance, saying: “The president of the United States has said very clearly we are not going to cut Social Security benefits.”

But committee Democrats accused Trump and Musk, a top Trump adviser and ally, of trying to discredit Social Security to justify dismantling it and, perhaps, privatizing it.

“I’ve never thought about privatizing. It’s not a word that anybody ever talked to me about,” Bisignano said.

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