WASHINGTON – As the debate on the future of Social Security continues, a bipartisan group of influential moderate senators is taking an active role in learning the intricacies of the program and seeking possible solutions for ensuring its solvency in the future.

Since the 109th Congress convened in January, the Senate Centrist Coalition, an informal group of middle-of-the-road senators from both parties including Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, has met three times to hear presentations from people with differing views on Social Security.

Earlier this week, six of the senators, including co-chairpersons Snowe and Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., heard a presentation by Al Hubbard, President Bush’s assistant for economic policy, on the White House’s stance on Social Security.

Though he has not yet presented a comprehensive plan, Bush has proposed allowing younger workers to divert a portion of their payroll taxes into personal accounts that could be invested in stocks and bonds. In return, they would get less of the traditional Social Security benefit.

Previous meetings of the centrists included discussions with three Washington-based policy think tanks – the Brookings Institution, a liberal-leaning policy organization; the Cato Institute, a libertarian group; and the Heritage Foundation, which promotes conservative policies. The presentations were made behind closed doors and specific information from them was not made public.

The coalition was started after partisan conflicts between a Republican Congress and President Clinton over balancing the federal budget briefly shut down the government in 1995. Since then, the group generally has met weekly to “exchange ideas” and have “open and frank conversations” in a civil manner about complicated issues, said Antonia Ferrier, Snowe’s press secretary. The group does not have an official membership, but a core group of about 15 senators usually attends, she said.

In past years, the coalition has come up with alternative budget proposals, Ferrier said. The group also exerted influence in helping to push for enactment of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill, said Sandy Maisel, director of the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement at Colby College in Waterville, Maine.

Maisel said the members who frequently attend the coalition’s meetings “have the potential to have a great deal of influence” in the current Senate, which is made up of 55 Republicans, 44 Democrats and Jim Jeffords, a Vermont independent who usually votes with the Democrats.

“All they need is a swing group of about six or seven, and then they can be very influential,” he said.

But Ferrier said the coalition’s influence on the Social Security debate remains to be seen.

“The group is not coming up with any shadow Social Security policy or anything like that,” she said, noting that no Social Security proposal exists yet. “At this point it’s really an educational process.”

Still, that educational process could have a powerful impact on the senators’ decision-making.

“I think many of us will formulate our conclusions on any reform plan that emerges using the ideas and information that spring up in our meetings,” Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., a co-vice chairman of the group and frequent coalition attendee, said in statement.

Snowe has vocally opposed creating private accounts and serves on the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over Social Security. She also expects the information the coalition gathers to have an impact in the debate.

“As the Senate moves forward on this crucial issue, I am confident that members of the Centrist Coalition will provide the Senate with the careful consideration and reasoned debate necessary in the effort to strengthen Social Security,” she said in a statement.