First three lawmakers picked for deficit reduction “super committee”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has announced he will appoint Senators Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Max Baucus (D-Mont.), and John Kerry (D-Mass.) to the debt “super committee” tasked with finding a way to reduce the federal government’s deficit by another $1.5 trillion over the next ten years.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will each pick three lawmakers of their own to serve on the bipartisan deficit-reduction panel by next week.

Reid announced that Murray will serve as a co-chair of the 12-person panel; Boehner gets to choose the other co-chair.

“The Joint Select Committee has been charged with forging the balanced, bipartisan approach to deficit reduction that the American people, the markets and rating agencies like Standard and Poor’s are demanding,” Reid said in a statement. “To achieve that goal, I have appointed three senators who each posses an expertise in budget matters, a commitment to a balanced approach and a track record of forging bipartisan consensus.”

Murray is the chairwoman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Baucus is the chairman of the Finance Committee. He’s made deals with Republicans in the past but has also fought their efforts to restyle Medicare and avoid raising income taxes on the wealthy, according to Politico. Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, reportedly lobbied hard for a seat at the table.

Under the terms laid out in the debt ceiling deal, the panel has until Nov. 23 to come up with recommendations for slicing an additional $1.5 trillion out of the federal budget. Congress will vote on their recommendations by Congress by Dec. 23. If either deadline goes unmet, automatic spending cuts are triggered in 2013, Reuters reports, including deep cuts to defense programs.

Mitch McConnell told ABC News on Tuesday that he was “very close” to choosing his three committee members. According to ABC News:

McConnell said that his criteria for his Republican picks is someone not only “well grounded philosophically,” but also who are “willing to accept something less than the absolute perfect solution,” as the Republican Party only controls 1/3 of the government, the House of Representatives.

“I’m putting people on there that I think have high character, great integrity, and can deal with the fact that they are going to be pushed and pulled and lobbied by everyone in this town, including our own colleagues in the Senate.”

The GOP senators who were part of the bipartisan “Gang of Six” that proposed a $3.75 trillion deficit reduction plan in July are unlikely to be named to the super committee, Republican sources told Reuters.