Reid Names Picks For Debt Super Committee

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has named the three Democratic Senators who will serve on the so-called super committee to reduce the nation's debt. Fox News has learned Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., Max Baucus, D-Mont., and John Kerry, D-Mass., will fill the Democratic Senate role on the committee.

"As the events of the past week have made clear, the world is watching the work of this committee. I am confident that Senators Murray, Baucus and Kerry will bring the thoughtfulness, bipartisanship, and commitment to a balanced approach that will produce the best outcome for the American people," Reid said in a statement.

Baucus is the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and Kerry is a member. Murray is the fourth highest ranking Democrat in the Senate but is seen by some as a very partisan pick since she chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

The 12 member super committee was born out of the last-minute compromise reached to raise the nation's debt ceiling before the federal government ran out of borrowing power in early August. As a part of the deal, the committee must find $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction and have Congress pass it by the end of the year. If Congress fails, automatic, across-the-board cuts will kick in.

Senate Republicans, House Republicans and House Democrats will also choose three members each to sit on the committee.

The committee will face added pressure to work across party lines to find substantive cuts after Standard and Poor's downgraded the U.S. credit rating in the wake of the deal and the political gridlock that led to it.

Fox News Senior Senate producer Trish Turner contributed to this report.