For a bill to become law, both houses of Congress must pass it in exactly the same form, word for word. But the Senate and House usually pass different versions of the same bill. One house may authorize more money to be spent or make the bill tougher or add some entirely new provision. After each house has voted on its version of a bill, the party leaders appoint a conference committee of House and Senate members to reconcile the differences. Members of the conference committee are usually members of the committees that first handled the legislation. Once the conference agrees on a single bill, it issues a conference report, which the Senate and House then vote to adopt—or to reject.
If the chief disagreement is about how much money to spend, conference committees tend to split the difference. Issues are more subject to bargaining, and the conference may simply drop the most controversial portions of the bill. Sometimes the bill's floor managers have accepted controversial amendments simply as “trading material,” knowing that the conference committee will eventually reject them.
House members often succeed in conference because they serve on just one major committee and have specialized in the issue at hand. “Before the conference committee, the House members usually meet to plan their strategies, their tactics,” observed Howard Shuman, a veteran Senate staff member. “They stay together. They're tough in conference.” But senators can also present a united front because the Senate usually works to achieve a bipartisan consensus on legislation rather than voting by party line. Conference reports tend to resemble the last version of the bill enacted, whether by the House or the Senate. Lobbyists from both inside and outside the government will concentrate on the later bill to correct whatever problems they find with the earlier one.
Sources
- Ross K. Baker,House and Senate (New York: Norton, 1989)
