After criticism, super committee to meet publicly again

The deficit-reduction super committee will hold a public hearing next Wednesday on security and non-security discretionary spending -- only its fourth public event. The 10 a.m. hearing will feature more testimony from Congressional Budget Office Director Doug Elmendorf. He testified last month at a hearing that looked into the history of the nation's debt and the forces behind that. The panel of 12 Republicans and Democrats, formally called the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction and charged with finding at least $1.2 trillion in savings over 10 years by Nov. 23, also publicly held its initial organizational meeting. But the lack of more frequent public meetings by the committee--and the continuation of its nearly daily closed-door sessions--has caused grumbling from more and more sources, including fellow members of Congress.