In addition to being long pushed by fiscal hawks and balanced budget evangelists, the idea of a commission is a popular one with many Republicans on Capitol Hill.

“I’ve been a supporter of a fiscal commission for a long time,” Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI) told the Washington Examiner. “And I think we need to ultimately have the adult conversation with the American people and bring a resolution to the floor and address it.”

House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-TX) said this month’s hearing will be on “how we create this mechanism” to address the fiscal situation, noting that Congress has experience creating bipartisan commissions. He specifically mentioned the Base Realignment and Closure, or BRAC, commission, and the 1983 National Commission on Social Security Reform. He also referenced the 2010 National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, known as the Simpson-Bowles Commission.

“Basically, a way to get thoughtful people, thoughtful policymakers, on both sides and outside experts and leaders in the business community, economics, so that we can all work on a long-term plan to deal with the structural deficits, the structural imbalances, in our budgets,” Arrington told the Washington Examiner.

Rep. Darin LaHood (R-IL), a member of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, said voters should encourage lawmakers to act. He also said any solution should be a bipartisan one.

“We need downward pressure on elected officials to address the debt,” he told the Washington Examiner. “And so, yes, I support a commission. I support more attention on the debt. I support looking at bipartisan solutions to address it.”

And public pressure is crucial for any sort of fiscal commission to succeed. That is because, in the absence of pressure from constituents, members might shy away from making tough decisions on the debt.

Some lawmakers said they are starting to hear more about the issue while campaigning back home.

Rep. Nathaniel Moran (R-TX) said problems with the debt have been a point of conversation in his district for some time, but recent changes in the bond market have sparked new concerns.

After debt hit the $40 trillion mark, yields on 30-year Treasurys pushed to levels not seen in some two decades. The benchmark 10-year yield also pushed closer to 5% earlier this week.

“I’ve just begun to hear from constituents about the yield issue just in the last week or so, but have consistently heard from them over the last two years about the debt and deficit issue,” Moran told the Washington Examiner.

Higher interest rates raise costs for families.

“Mortgages, car loans, credit card debt, small-business loans — these interest rates affect everything,” former Georgia Democratic Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux (D-GA), who is now the executive director of the Concord Coalition, which focuses on balancing the budget, told the Washington Examiner.

Rep. Greg Murphy (R-NC), another member of the Ways and Means Committee, said he is “absolutely” hearing from constituents on the debt and related matters.

“I’m terrified of it myself,” Murphy told the Washington Examiner on the steps outside of the Capitol. “We have a math problem in the country that we have a growing, aging population, and we have fewer and fewer people paying into the system. And so, the day of reckoning is coming, and there are a lot of different things that are going to have to happen to avert this.”

Steil said some constituents have expressed concerns about debt and deficits.

“I mean, people are aware and concerned of it, I don’t know that everybody is aware and concerned of the significance of the challenges that we face,” he said. “And one of the big concerns is that the debt markets force action rather than us acting proactively.”

Still, while there are some economic tie-ins to inflation and affordability, most voters are far more concerned about prices than they are about the national debt or the bond market. LaHood said people should be more concerned than they are.

“We’re at an existential point in terms of where our debt is at,” LaHood said. “The scary part is you do polling, and you ask the American people the top 10 issues, debt and deficit isn’t in the top 10.”

That is where a fiscal commission comes in, according to experts. They say a commission could help with public education and outreach.

Past commissions have had mixed results. One success that some point to is the Greenspan Commission, which helped stabilize Social Security. House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill (R-AR) also mentioned that commission when asked his thoughts on the matter.

“I’ve always supported for years a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution,” Hill told the Washington Examiner. “I’ve always supported a bipartisan approach that can be used to resolve some of the mandatory spending challenges. That was successfully done in 1983 in the Greenspan Social Security Commission.”

Still, the Greenspan Commission wasn’t organized years in advance of key deadlines and was convened at the last minute after estimates indicated that the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund would soon run out of money.

Hill said a similar situation could play out this time around.

“I always think it’s better to act sooner rather than at the last minute, but Congress, over 200 years, has tended to wait towards where there’s a real significant motivating demand signal,” Hill said.

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While many support a fiscal commission, some are skeptical that one would actually prove effective at tackling the tough issues like entitlement reform.

“Do we really need to study the problem?” Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO), a member of the Freedom Caucus and fiscal hawk, told the Washington Examiner. “I think it’s a clear math problem. It’s not a Republican problem or Democrat problem. It’s a math problem. So we all know what we need to do, and that’s reduce spending.”