During the last few weeks, Congressman Fred Upton (R-St. Joseph) has been touring the 6th District of Michigan meeting with constituents, promoting job creation and attending local city and county meetings.  During these events, Upton fielded questions related to the 12-member Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction and wide spread declarations of support for the success of the bipartisan panel.

“I am encouraged by my discussions with other appointed members of the committee who have also received support from people in their districts.  I believe we all understand that in order to reduce our nation’s debt, we will need to work together.  U.S. fiscal policy is in a rut and it will take tough choices and bipartisan cooperation within the committee to rein in spending and get our economy back on track and American’s back to work.”

Yesterday, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and U.S. Representative Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), co-chairmen of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction issued the following statement:

“In the days since Leader Reid and Speaker Boehner asked us to undertake this joint responsibility, we have been working together to ensure that the committee we help build is given every opportunity to succeed.  

“In our capacity as co-chairmen, we are engaging in serious discussions to determine what set of rules will govern the committee’s operation, examining a schedule of potential meetings and exploring how to build a committee staff that will help us achieve success.  Additionally, most of the committee members are reviewing the deficit reduction work that many others have engaged in over the past several years.  We are confident that most Americans will agree that when building an organization from the ground-up with a short time-table for success, it’s important to get it right the first time.

“We are excited that committee members and staff from both sides of the aisle are eager to engage one another as we begin our work.  We encourage our colleagues to participate in active and useful dialogue across the aisle and among our respective caucuses as we continue to work through this process.”