All congressional leaders empowered by the recently enacted Budget Control Act[1] have now made their appointments to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (the “Super Committee”) as follows—

• By Senate Majority Leader Reid: Sens. Murray (D-WA), Baucus (D-MT) and Kerry (D-MA)
• By Senate Republican Leader McConnell: Sens. Kyl (R-AZ), Toomey (R-PA) and Portman (R-OH)
• By House Speaker Boehner: Reps. Hensarling (R-TX), Camp (R-MI) and Upton (R-MI)
• By House Democratic Leader Pelosi: Reps. Clyburn (D-SC), Van Hollen (D-MD) and Becerra (D-CA).

In addition, Rep. Hensarling and Sen. Murray have been designated as co-chairs of the Super Committee.  The following is a brief analysis of the appointments.

• Four appointees (Hensarling, Becerra, Camp and Baucus) were members of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (“Bowles-Simpson”) and did not support the final package.
• No current member of Congress who was a member of Bowles-Simpson and who supported the final package was appointed to the Super Committee (Durbin, Conrad, Coburn and Crapo).
• No member of the Gang of Six was appointed (Warner, Durbin, Conrad, Chambliss, Crapo and Coburn).
• Two (Toomey and Becerra) voted against the recently-enacted Budget Control Act that created the Super Committee.
• Four (Kyl, Baucus, Clyburn and Van Hollen) participated in Biden Group negotiations.
• Appointments of members of the major committees of jurisdiction are—
• Appropriations (1): Murray
• Budget (4): Portman, Toomey, Murray and Van Hollen
• Ways and Means/Finance (5): Camp, Becerra, Baucus, Kerry and Kyl
• Energy & Commerce (1): Upton.
• Five members currently serve in House or Senate leadership positions—
• Hensarling (House Republican Conference chair)
• Clyburn (Assistant Democratic Leader)
• Becerra (House Democratic Caucus vice-chair)
• Kyl (Senate Republican Whip)
• Murray (Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chair and Senate Majority Conference secretary).
• Five members serve as full committee chairs—
• Baucus (Senate Finance)
• Kerry (Senate Foreign Relations)
• Murray (Senate Veterans)
• Camp (House Ways & Means)
• Upton (House Energy & Commerce).
• Two (tax-writing committee chairmen Baucus and Camp) recently struck a bipartisan deal on the Trade Adjustment Assistance program and three pending free trade agreements (South Korea, Colombia and Panama).
• Two (Baucus and Camp) have said that they prefer to keep tax reform on a separate legislative track.

The next steps in the Super Committee process are (i) the joint appointment of a staff director by the two co-chairs (Murray and Hensarling) and (ii) the first organizational meeting of the Super Committee, to take place on September 16.

[1] Please see the Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP client alert “An Overview and Analysis of the Budget Control Act of 2011” (August 8, 2011).