Major CEOs have begun lobbying Congress to reach a deficit agreement this year to avoid a "fiscal cliff' of automatic spending cuts and tax increases next year that could send the economy into recession.

Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase is among those leading the effort, The Wall Street Journal reports. But it’s unclear how much influence he will have in the Capitol, given the bank’s recent $2 billion trading loss.

Other CEOs involved include Laurence Fink of BlackRock, Terry Lundgren of Macy's, and Mark Bertolini of Aetna.

Editor's Note: This Wasn’t an Accident — Experts Testify on Financial Meltdown

Executives hope that the two parties in Congress, who have been unable to agree on much of anything this year, will act after November’s elections. The CEOs want to see the $1.3 trillion deficit shrink but without extreme spending reductions and tax hikes.

Many of them see the 2010 Simpson-Bowles deficit-reduction plan as the model Congress should use.

The CEOs’ activity represents "an acknowledgment of the political reality that to get something done everyone is going to have to come together and get out of their boxes," Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, tells The Journal.

The United States surprisingly posted a budget surplus of $59 billion in April, helped by annual tax payments. But economists don’t expect that to last.

“The deficit is still large by historical standards and will likely eventually require significant fiscal adjustments," Cooper Hawes of Barclays Capital tells Reuters.

Editor's Note: This Wasn’t an Accident — Experts Testify on Financial Meltdown