The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee announced on Feb. 14 that his panel will not consider the nomination of Andrew Biggs, a leading supporter of Social Security privatization, to serve as deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration.

Biggs served as a staff member on the 2001 President's Commission to Strengthen Social Security, which recommended methods in which individuals could divert a portion of their Social Security taxes into private investment accounts. He has also worked on Social Security issues at the Cato Institute, which has pushed for Social Security privatization for many years.

Considering Biggs nomination would reopen a privatization debate that was closed in 2005, Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said.

"Mr. Biggs has championed Social Security privatization in the past, and he continues to think it's a good idea today," Baucus said. "It's a bad idea to give the number-two position at the Social Security Administration to someone who still supports that failed proposal. The American people took privatization off the table in the last Social Security debate. ... It's time to move on to a real discussion about the long-term finances of Social Security and the federal budget."

Biggs was also nominated but not confirmed for the deputy commissioner job in 2006.