Supercommittee Mum on Proceedings

The bipartisan congressional supercommittee charged with suggesting ways to cut $1.25 trillion from budget deficits over the next 10 years is conducting its proceedings behind closed doors and revealing little of what’s going on there, Politico reports.


Some members of Congress had called for open meetings before the committee started its work.


But some say the lack of transparency is a good thing. “In this era of hyper-partisanship, the fact that 12 members have been in the room for substantive discussions without leaks should be a breath of fresh air,” an aide to the committee told Politico.


“The truth is that while every vote this committee takes will be public and every hearing will be open and televised, progress around a bipartisan plan is going to also take closed-door sessions in which members can be frank in their negotiations.”