Lobbyists descend on ‘supercommittee’

Nearly 200 companies and special interests have registered to lobby the 12-member congressional supercommittee charged with reducing the deficit. The supercommittee has been working in secrecy for three months to find $1.2 trillion in savings by Thanksgiving or face steep automatic cuts to defense and nondefense spending. The lobbyists, from health care, defense, transportation, and other industries, are pressing lawmakers to spare their clients, even as the committee faces mounting pressure to make massive cuts. Failure “would lead to substantial risk of a downgrade, which would have serious consequences for jobs and our economy,” said a GOP aid.