Wall Street veteran Frank Bisignano was confirmed by the Senate on Tuesday to lead the Social Security Administration, taking over at a turbulent time for the agency that provides benefits to more than 70 million Americans.

The Senate confirmed Bisignano in a 53-47 party-line vote.

Bisignano’s confirmation comes after a months-long series of announcements at the Social Security Administration of mass federal worker layoffs, cuts to programs, office closures and a planned cut to nationwide Social Security phone services, which were eventually walked back.

Many of the changes are driven by the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, headed by billionaire adviser Elon Musk.

Bisignano, a self-professed “DOGE person,” has served as chair of Fiserv, a payments and financial services tech firm since 2020. He is a one-time defender of corporate policies to protect LGBTQ+ people from discrimination. Bisignano takes over from the agency’s acting commissioner, DOGE supporter Leland Dudek. Bisignano’s term ends in January 2031.

Asked during his March confirmation hearing whether Social Security should be privatized, Bisignano responded: “I’ve never heard a word of it, and I’ve never thought about it.”

During the final roll call vote, Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden called Bisignano “unfit” to be the steward of Americans’ Social Security benefits. Wyden said Trump wants Bisignano to “gut” Social security, and that Republicans who support Bisignano’s confirmation would be to responsible if their grandmother misses a Social Security check and can’t pay rent.

“By confirming Mr. Bisignano, the Senate will be signing a death sentence to Social Security as we know it today,” Wyden said

U.S., China officials to meet this week on trade

Top U.S. officials are set to meet with a high-level Chinese delegation this weekend in Switzerland in the first major talks between the two nations since President Donald Trump sparked a trade war with stiff tariffs on imports.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will meet with their Chinese counterparts in Geneva in the most-senior known conversations between the two countries in months, the Trump administration announced Tuesday. It comes amid growing U.S. market worry over the impact of the tariffs on the prices and supply of consumer goods.

No country has been hit harder by Trump’s trade war than China, the world’s biggest exporter and second largest economy.

Trump had claimed previously that the U.S. and China were holding negotiations on lowering tariffs, which Beijing has denied, saying Trump must first lower his stiff tariffs.

U.S. attorney nominee faces GOP opposition

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis says he’s informed the White House that he won’t support Ed Martin, President Donald Trump’s pick for top federal prosecutor in Washington, stalling the nomination in the Senate weeks before the temporary appointment expires.

The North Carolina Republican told reporters Tuesday that he had met with Martin on Monday evening and was opposing his nomination because of his defense of rioters who breached the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Martin, a leading figure in Trump’s campaign to overturn the 2020 election, spoke at a rally on the eve of the violent riot and represented defendants who were prosecuted for the attack.

“We have to be very, very clear that what happened on January 6th was wrong,” Tillis said. “It was not prompted or created by other people to put those people in trouble. They made a stupid decision, and they disgraced the United States by absolutely destroying the Capitol.”

The U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington is the country’s largest and prosecuted more than 1,500 riot defendants after the 2021 attack. Trump pardoned most of the rioters the day he was inaugurated, and he later appointed Martin to temporarily lead the office. That appointment expires later this month, and Trump has urged Republican senators to quickly confirm Martin to the job.

“Ed is coming up on the deadline for Voting and, if approved, HE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Monday.

Martin could still be confirmed after his ap

pointment expires. But Tillis’s opposition will prevent the committee from advancing the nomination, for now, and signals that Martin might not have the votes to win confirmation on the Senate floor. Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley did not list Martin on this week’s agenda for votes later in the week, suggesting that Republicans are aware there are not enough votes to confirm him.

Sources: Deportation flights to Libya planned

The Trump administration is planning to transport a group of immigrants to Libya on a U.S. military plane, according to U.S. officials, another sharp escalation in a deportation program that has sparked widespread legal challenges and political debate.

The nationalities of the migrants were not immediately clear, but a flight to Libya carrying the deportees could leave as soon as Wednesday, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the operation.

The North African country is racked with conflict, and human rights groups have called conditions in its network of migrant detention centers “horrific” and “deplorable.”

The Libya operation falls in line with the Trump administration’s effort to not only deter migrants from trying to enter the country illegally but also to send a strong message to those in the country illegally that they can be deported to countries where they could face brutal conditions. Reuters earlier reported the possibility of a U.S. deportation flight to Libya.

The planning for the flight to Libya has been tightly held, and could still be derailed by logistical, legal or diplomatic obstacles.

Lawmakers protest budget site shutdown

The top two Republicans and Democrats on the congressional appropriations committees are protesting the White House’s decision to take down a website tracking federal spending, escalating a battle between Congress and President Donald Trump over spending powers.

In a previously undisclosed letter sent last month to Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, the lawmakers questioned the rationale for shutting down the website, which they and advocacy groups said was a violation of the law.

“We look forward to working with you to restore public access to apportionment data in accordance with statute,” they wrote.

The letter was signed by Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the Republican chairs of the House and Senate appropriations committees, and the two senior Democrats on those panels, Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut and Sen. Patty Murray of Washington.

It was a rare instance of bipartisan pushback from members of the House and the Senate against the White House at a time when the Trump administration is mounting an aggressive challenge to the legislative branch’s spending prerogatives.

NTSB vice chair removed from position

The vice chair of the National Transportation Safety Board has been abruptly removed from his position, the White House confirmed Tuesday, a rare move that comes as the federal agency charged with investigating aviation disasters juggles more than 1,000 cases.

The Trump administration removed Alvin Brown a little more than a year after he was sworn in for a term that was expected to end in 2026. The White House didn’t say why he was removed and Brown has not publicly commented.

The decision comes as NTSB investigates nearly 1,250 active cases across the U.S., while supporting more than 160 foreign investigations, according to March testimony by NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy.

Vance half brother runs for Cincinnati mayor

A half brother of Vice President JD Vance who is running for mayor of Cincinnati advanced Tuesday to compete in the general election.

The candidate, Cory Bowman, a Republican coffee shop owner, won a small share of the votes in Tuesday’s nonpartisan primary, according to The Associated Press. He came in second to the current mayor, Aftab Pureval, a Democrat.

They will now face each other again in November. The results pushed a third candidate, Brian Frank, also a Republican, out of the race.

Cincinnati mayoral elections are technically nonpartisan, but it has been decades since the city elected a Republican to the office. Vice President Kamala Harris won 77% of the city’s voters last fall, even as President Donald Trump and Vance, then Ohio’s junior senator, took the state.

— From news services