With deficit-reduction work expected to dominate Congress’ time this fall, Washington lobbyists are facing the prospect that they might not be able to deliver this year for clients on a range of issues.
Congress focused its efforts for most of the last two months on preventing the federal government from defaulting on its debt, putting many issues on the back burner. On Aug. 2, Congress passed the Budget Control Act, which ended the debt-ceiling crisis, but didn’t wrap up work on reducing the deficit. The act created the 12-member “super committee,” which is tasked with making a recommendation before Thanksgiving on how to lower the deficit by at least $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years.
