Orszag weighing whether to remain WH budget director

After a request from the president to stick around, White House Budget Director Peter Orszag is expected decide soon whether he'll stay or go. 

Orszag was apparently set to leave his Cabinet post with the Obama administration within the next several months, then came a plea from his boss, President Barack Obama to rethink his departure, Bloomberg reported Thursday morning. 

The official word from the White House is Orszag has no plans to leave. 

It's common for the head of the Office of Management and Budget to work through one budget cycle -- about 18 months -- then leave the grueling post. But Obama could implore Orszag to stay on a while longer to help rein in budget deficits, which could hit $1.6 trillion this year, as the economy begins to recover. 

Orszag, 41, is the former head of the Congressional Budget Office, and he helped usher through the $862 billion stimulus in 2009 and the recent $940 billion healthcare legislation. 

If Orszag chooses to leave this summer that would set up Senate confirmation hearings for Obama's next nominee. 

Several people could be considered for the budget director's job including Robert Greenstein, executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities; Robert Reischauer, president of the Urban Institute and a former CBO director; and Gene Sperling, a Treasury Department adviser who has been considered for the deputy slot with OMB, according to news reports.