Bipartisan commission to study reforming Social Security.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

WASHINGTON _ President Bush will name a bipartisan commission Wednesday to work out the details of his proposal to let many Americans divert some of their Social Security taxes into private investments.

The 14-member panel will be charged with recommending a specific plan by this fall, which would set up a major fight in Congress as lawmakers head into next year's mid-term elections.

It will be co-chaired by former Democratic Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York and by Richard Parsons, an executive with AOL Time Warner, according to a person familiar with the new commission who asked not to be identified by name. The panel also is expected to include former Democratic Rep. Tim Penny of Minnesota and Sam Beard, a former aide to the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.

The commission will be split evenly between Democrats and Republicans. All members have been at least open to the idea of partly privatizing the retirement system.

"The president believes deeply that the best way to save Social Security is by allowing younger workers on a voluntary basis to have personal retirement accounts," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Tuesday.

"The commission the president will announce will, of course, be comprised of people who share the president's view that personal retirement accounts are the way to save Social Security. That's exactly what the president said he would do."

With the baby boom generation (those born between 1946 and 1964) about to start retiring and collecting checks, the Social Security trust fund is expected to be drained by 2038. After that, wage taxes paid by current workers would be enough to finance only about three-quarters of today's pension benefits.