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supercommittee

supercommittee

6.7
A government group with power to make important decisions about big issues
  • noun
  • /ˌsuːpərkəˈmɪti/
  • Formal
: supercomité
  • During the supercommittee's negotiations, both sides dismissed the other's offer as being less than serious.
  • congressional supercommittee
  • supercommittee failure
  • deficit reduction supercommittee

Examples

  • Members of the supercommittee met weekly to discuss their strategies for addressing the national deficit.

  • The government established a supercommittee to tackle the pressing issues of healthcare reform and debt reduction.

  • Thanks to the failed supercommittee, lawmakers may have a better sense of how the two sides could eventually agree.

    Blog text (33)
  • The supercommittee did manage to simplify the two parties' fight over taxes.

    Blog text (33)
  • Maybe the supercommittee at least gave lawmakers a clearer picture of where they disagree.

    Blog text (33)
  • The supercommittee did reveal that Republicans may be amenable to some tax increases, which seemed improbable before.

    Blog text (33)
  • In the event the supercommittee failed to come up with a viable plan, the BCA established sequestration as an incentive to force bipartisan compromise.

    Blog text (24)
  • The BCA also created the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (often referred to as the "supercommittee") to come up with a plan to reduce the deficit by another $1.2 trillion over the same decade.

    Blog text (24)
  • As tensions rose, the supercommittee struggled to reach a consensus on the proposed budget changes.

Synonyms

commission
vssupercommittee
  • Formal
817 4.1

A group of people chosen to investigate or manage something

has special authority to make major government decisions rather than routine tasks

How Powerful

supercommittee
  • Formal
6.7
select committee
  • Formal
24 4.4
committee
∞ 3.2
panel
613 3.7

Surface Forms

Morphology

supercommittee = committee (transparent) = super + committee

The meaning is directly formed by adding the intensifying prefix 'super-' to 'committee', indicating a committee with greater authority or importance.

Etymology

The word supercommittee combines super- meaning 'above' or 'very', as in superhero or supermarket, and committee, a 'group chosen to do a job'. So a supercommittee is an 'above' or extra-powerful committee, which is why it has special authority to make big decisions.