Rather than diving into salary freezes, furloughs or other federal workforce measures for cutting government costs, the congressional “super committee” created by the debt ceiling deal instead bantered more about unemployment and war funding during its first public session Wednesday.

After months of legislation that would have imposed staff reductions and furloughs, along with a salary freeze that did go into effect, federal employees were concerned they would be a prime target for the panel. Instead, Federal Daily reported, the members of Congress appointed to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction heard testimony by Douglas Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and talked about unemployment and war funding. Keep reading →