Factbox: Deficit super committee's 12 members

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress' "super committee" on deficit reduction is set to meet on Thursday for the first time, with financial markets watching closely to see if its 12 members can do anything meaningful.

The panel has the job of finding at least $1.2 trillion in government budget savings over the next decade, following up on $917 billion in deficit reduction agreed in August. Committee members can use budget cuts and tax changes in their effort.

They have until November 23 to achieve their objective -- or something close to it. Then Congress will have until December 23 to vote on the panel's recommendations. If either deadline goes unmet, then automatic budget cuts are triggered in 2013.

Here is a list of the six Democratic and six Republican lawmakers on the super committee.

SENATE DEMOCRATS

MAX BAUCUS: A centrist leader known for working across party lines, Baucus is chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee. He has been a proponent of tax reform.

He was a member of President Barack Obama's 2010 Bowles-Simpson deficit commission that offered up $4 trillion in savings through spending cuts and revenue increases. He opposed the final Bowles-Simpson plan because it would have cut benefits for veterans and the elderly and hurt his largely rural home state of Montana by raising gasoline prices.

Baucus fought former President George W. Bush's push to privatize the Social Security retirement program. He is a vocal critic of a House of Representatives Republican plan to privatize Medicare, the health insurance program for the aged.

JOHN KERRY: The failed 2004 Democratic presidential candidate, Kerry is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a Finance Committee member.

Kerry, who is from Massachusetts, has been outspoken in calling for long-term remedies for annual budget deficits and the growing national debt. But he also wants large U.S. investments in infrastructure -- to rebuild crumbling roads and bridges and to create jobs. He wants to do so with minimal government spending by creating a bank to help finance the projects with a revolving fund.

PATTY MURRAY: Named by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to be co-chair of the super committee, Murray, of Washington state, is a member of the Senate's Democratic leadership and chairs a political committee that works to elect more Democrats to the Senate. In 2013, she is in line to be the senior Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee.

SENATE REPUBLICANS

ROB PORTMAN: A first-term senator from Ohio, Portman knows budget and tax issues after working in the Bush administration as director of the Office of Management and Budget. When he was in the House, Portman served on both the Budget and the tax-writing Ways and Means Committees.

JON KYL: The No. 2 Senate Republican, Kyl, of Arizona, does not plan to run for re-election next year. In the debt limit debate, he was a strong voice against raising taxes. He would be a tough negotiator on the super committee.

PATRICK TOOMEY: He is a favorite of the conservative Tea Party movement that wants to shrink the federal government. Toomey accused Obama administration officials of exaggerating the risk of default if Congress failed to raise the debt ceiling. He rejects administration calls for tax increases and likely will take a hard line on the need for further government spending cuts. Toomey is in his first term as a senator from Pennsylvania.

HOUSE REPUBLICANS

DAVE CAMP: The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee wants to balance the budget without raising taxes. This is a key Republican goal and one that most fiscal policy experts say cannot be met without devastating budget cuts.

Camp has said the super committee would not be the best forum for comprehensive tax reform.

He was on the Bowles-Simpson panel and opposed its final recommendations, which he said failed to address rising healthcare costs and included tax increases that would impede economic growth. In a Reuters interview in early August, Camp, of Michigan, would not rule out tax increases that enabled economic growth.

JEB HENSARLING: As a conservative House Republican, he has pushed for a moratorium on funding designations by lawmakers, known as earmarks, and proposed capping federal spending at 20 percent of the size of the U.S. economy every year.

A Bowles-Simpson member, he opposed its recommendations. The Texan is a co-chair of the super committee.

FRED UPTON: In his 13th two-year term representing a southwest Michigan district, Upton is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. For most of his career in the House he compiled a moderate voting record. But he has tacked rightward lately, working against Obama administration efforts to rein in greenhouse gas pollution blamed for global warming.

HOUSE DEMOCRATS

XAVIER BECERRA: A rank-and-file party lieutenant, the vice chairman of the House Democratic Caucus sits on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. He is close to fellow Californian and Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. He was on the Bowles-Simpson panel and opposed its final report. A solid liberal, Becerra has ties to the White House. At the start of Obama's presidency, he was offered the job of U.S. trade representative but turned it down.

CHRIS VAN HOLLEN: Another party stalwart, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee was part of a bipartisan group led by Vice President Joe Biden that tried unsuccessfully earlier this year to forge a deficit deal. From Maryland, Van Hollen is former chairman of the House Democratic Campaign Committee and is a Pelosi confidant.

JAMES CLYBURN: The senior member of the South Carolina delegation to Congress, he is the No. 3 House Democrat and a Pelosi ally. Clyburn also is an influential member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

(Reporting by Kevin Drawbaugh, Richard Cowan, Donna Smith and Thomas Ferraro; Editing by Bill Trott)