Going To Conference
Conference committees operate after the House and the Senate have passed different versions of a bill. Conference committees exist to draft a compromise bill that both houses can accept. Both houses of Congress must eventually pass the identical legislation for the bill to become law. (See U.S. Const., art I, sec. 7.) The two houses can reach that identical product through the process of amendments between Houses, where the House passes the Senate bill with a House amendment, or vice versa, but this process can be cumbersome. Thus most major bills become law through using a conference committee. (See Sen. Procedure, 449.)
After one house passes a bill, the second house will often pass the same bill, with an amendment representing the second house’s work product. The second house will then send a message between houses to the first house, asking the first house to concur with the second house’s amendment. If the first house does not like the second house’s amendment, then the first house can disagree with the amendment of the second house, request a conference, appoint conferees, and send a message to that effect to the second house. The second house then insists on its amendment, agrees to a conference, and appoints conferees.
Each house determines the number of conferees from its house. The number of conferees need not be equal from the two houses of Congress. In order to conclude its business, a majority of both House and Senate delegations to the conference must indicate their approval by signing the conference report.
The authority to appoint conferees lies in the entire House, and the entire Senate can appoint conferees by adopting a debatable motion to do so. (See Cong. Rec., 18 June 1968, 17,618–24; Sen. Procedure, 455.) But leadership have increasingly exercised authority in the appointment of conferees.
The House and Senate may instruct conferees, but these instructions are not binding on conferees.
Read more about this topic: United States Congressional Conference Committee
Famous quotes containing the word conference:
“For 350 years we have been taught that reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man and writing an exact man. Football’s place is to add a patina of character, a deference to the rules and a respect for authority.”
—Walter Wellesley (Red)