Orszag returning to Brookings

Former Obama administration official Peter Orszag is returning to the Brookings Institution after leaving more than eight years ago.

{mosads}Orszag, who left Brookings in January, 2007 to head up the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) before taking the reins at the Office of Management and Budget from January 2009 until July 2010, helped shaped President Obama’s economic and healthcare policy early in his presidency.

Orszag helped usher through the 2009 economic stimulus in response to the financial crisis and expanded CBO’s role in prepping for the president’s push to expand health insurance coverage.

He is rejoining the Brookings economic studies program as a nonresident senior fellow, effective Tuesday.

“We are happy to welcome Peter back to Brookings,” said Ted Gayer, Brookings’s vice president and director of economic studies.

“Peter’s dedication to using economic research to guide sound policymaking, combined with his experiences in key leadership roles, makes him a great addition to the economics studies team.”

Orzag is still at Citigroup, where he is vice chairman of corporate and investment banking and chairman of its financial strategy and solutions group.

During his first stint at Brookings, Orszag was the Joseph A. Pechman Senior Fellow and deputy director of economic studies and served as the first director of The Hamilton Project, the director of the Retirement Security Project and a co-director of the Brookings-Urban Tax Policy Center.

Before his time at Brookings, Orszag served in the Clinton administration, where he was special assistant to the president for economic policy.