Panetta, supercommittee members have not held formal meeting

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has not met face-to-face with members of the special congressional panel charged with finding at least $1.2 trillion in federal cuts, a Pentagon spokesman said.

Panetta has had an “engagement over time” with the supercommittee, Pentagon spokesman George Little said Wednesday during a Pentagon press briefing.

But the secretary has not met with the panel, nor has it invited him to do so, Little said.

If the supercommittee fails to reach a deal on federal cuts, $500 billion in Pentagon cuts over a decade would be triggered. That would be in addition to $350 billion over the same span mandated under the summer debt-reduction deal.

Panetta has described that nearly $1 trillion cut as a “doomsday” mechanism that would create a “hollow force.”

In an October report, however, the Project on Defense Alternatives called that level of military cuts “reasonable.”