Want the inside scoop on the supercommittee? Ask a lobbyist.
Reporters and government watchdog groups are up in arms over the secrecy surrounding the committee, tasked with cutting at least $1.2 trillion from the nation’s deficit, which has met more frequently in secret than publicly and has rejected calls to disclose its donors and post its documents online.
But some of Washington’s highest-paid lobbyists aren’t sweating it.
K Streeters with deep ties to supercommittee members and congressional leadership say senior staffers have given them readouts from closed-door committee meetings. For example, senior aides to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), who is on the panel, met with several Republican lobbyists on Thursday and among the topics discussed was the prospect for a grand deal. Two days earlier, Kyl and the rest of the committee answered no questions as they brushed past a gaggle of reporters who had waited outside the private, six-hour meeting.
