CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
Aug. 1, 2011 – 11:20 p.m.
New Committee’s Jurisdiction: Anything Involving Money
By Ben Weyl, CQ Staff
If the congressional committees that write tax, budget and appropriations bills are the Big Three money panels, what is the “Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction,” created by the debt deal?
It’s a “mega supercommittee,” said
“How realistic it is to vest all the authority . . . to a 12-member committee that may not have been involved in these issues?” she asked.
The joint panel established by the debt ceiling compromise (
Its breadth is wide. The panel would be able to consider all facets of the federal government as it seeks to reduce the deficit by $1.5 trillion over 10 years, and it would be required to vote on its recommendations by Nov. 23. The panel’s proposals would need to receive only a simple majority vote in both chambers.
Rep.
The panel would be made up of three Democrats and three Republicans from each chamber; they would be appointed by the congressional leaders.
Senate Majority Leader
“It’s extremely important that I pick people who are willing to make hard choices but are not locked in,” Reid said. “We have to go into this with people with our eyes wide open, willing to make difficult choices — but yet understand the political reality of the world we are in.”
Already a serious dispute exists over whether the committee will include additional revenue in its final proposal, with many Democrats assuming that will be the case, even as House Republicans have been assured that that will not happen.
Reid said he had been told that House Majority Leader
Sen.
Democratic supporters of the deal are saying that “the commission can look at revenue,” Menendez said on the Senate floor. “Yes, it can look at revenue. But that commission, which is going to be appointed with an equal number of Republicans and Democrats, pretty much tells you where it’s going to end up.”
New Committee’s Jurisdiction: Anything Involving Money
Snowe, for her part, was concerned because of her experience with another supercommittee: the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission, which dictated base closures in many states, including Maine. “I have dealt with the base closing [commission] for five consecutive rounds,” she said, citing the lack of transparency in the process. “A lot of it happens behind the scenes.”
Joseph J. Schatz contributed to this story.