Pop quiz: Without Googling, can you name the most recent commissioner of Social Security? Can you name any commissioner of Social Security, ever?
Until recently, even the deepest of Washington insiders would have struggled to answer this question. Leading the Social Security Administration (SSA) has long ranked as one of the most obscure big jobs in the federal government. No one seemed to care much about who ran an agency that dispensed $1.6 trillion in benefits last year—comprising almost one-quarter of the federal budget—to more than 70 million seniors and disabled Americans, many of whom rely on those payments to make ends meet. Put simply, no part of our government has such a direct, people-facing role as the SSA, and in no big department has the leader been so faceless.
