This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

An American congressional committee reported failure earlier this week. The committee failed in its effort to cut the federal budget deficit by one point two trillion dollars over ten years.

The Co-Chairs of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction released a statement. It said, "we havecome to the conclusiontoday that it will not be possible to make any bipartisan agreement available to the public before the committee's deadline."

The twelve-member committee was created under the Budget Control Act of Twenty Eleven. The group was equally divided between the two main parties. The goal was to find acceptable ways to cut federal deficits. But, without an agreement, that will fall to involuntary cuts through the act of sequestration.

The budgetary terms, sequester and sequestration, mean that the Treasury Department will withhold or cancel a set amount of spending.