Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) announced today he will not take up the nomination of Andrew Biggs to be Deputy Commissioner of the Social Security Administration. Biggs was nominated last year but was not confirmed and was re-nominated this year by President Bush. In making his announcement, Baucus said: Andrew Biggs Mr. Biggs has championed Social Security privatization in the past, and he continues to think it's a good idea today. 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. They saw that privatization would hurt Social Security's solvency, add $5 trillion to the federal debt, and expose Social Security benefits to market risk for the first time ever, and said no. It's time to move on to a real discussion about the long-term finances of Social Security and the Federal budget. Biggs is currently the Assistant Director of the Project on Social Security Choice at the Cato Institute, a well-funded and vocal advocate for privitization of Social Security. This is a solid decision by Sen. Baucus.