One of the most vocal supporters of mandatory Social Security coverage for public employees has been chosen to head the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

Peter Orszag, an economist with the Brookings Institution, was selected by lawmakers to become director of the non-partisan agency that produces fiscal projections on budgets and legislation for Congress.

Orszag, widely regarded as a Social Security expert, served in the Clinton administration as a special assistant to the president for economic policy and as a senior adviser on Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers. In 1998, Orszag told a group of public pension officials meeting with him at the White House that forcing all state and local workers to participate in Social Security was a "no-brainer" because nearly all Americans are already in the program and "besides, we need the money."

Orszag has continued to push mandatory coverage while at Brookings, a liberal think tank, including advocacy of the measure in articles and a Social Security reform proposal he authored with Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Peter Diamond.

Coalition to Preserve Retirement Security Chair Terri Bierdeman noted that, while the CBO does not make policy recommendations, Orszag could nonetheless raise the profile of mandatory coverage proposals.

"Members of Congress turn to the CBO to get revenue and cost estimates," Bierdeman said. "He will have ample opportunity to tell them - in reports and in person - that mandatory coverage would add billions of dollars to Social Security. He almost certainly won't explain the devastating effects this would have at the state and local level, however."

Requiring all new state and local workers to join Social Security would increase Social Security revenues by $44 billion over five years, according to The Segal Company. That money, though, would come from states and localities, potentially leading to increased taxes, cuts in education, police and fire protection and other vital government services and destabilization of public employee retirement funds.

Orszag awaits formal appointment to the post by congressional leaders, a process that is expected to be a rubber-stamp of the decision by the bipartisan group of legislators that chose him.