DOING THE DEAL:

GOP tax expert to help run debt-reduction 'super committee' (Lori Montgomery, Published: August 30, 2011, Washington Post)

A veteran Senate GOP tax expert with long experience working across the aisle was tapped Tuesday to help run a powerful new congressional debt-reduction committee, buoying hopes that the panel would produce a plan to tame borrowing.

Mark Prater, 52, has served as chief tax counsel for Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee for nearly two decades, playing a key role in forging consensus on numerous major tax and deficit-reduction bills. [...]

Democrats and Republicans alike praised Prater as an honest broker with an encyclopedic knowledge of tax and health policy. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called him "one of the brightest, most knowledgeable, trusted and professional staffers on Capitol Hill." Bill Dauster, deputy chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), called Prater "the kind of person you can talk to about how to get to yes, how you cut the deal, what pieces have to move."