Democratic leadership in both the House and Senate are going through the budget reconciliation process in order to deliver urgently needed COVID-19 relief to families. We know that this process is lengthy and can drag out even further if the two chambers pass significantly different reconciliation bills. The process to resolve those differences to create one identical bill before it can pass in both the Senate and House is called a Conference Committee.
What is a Conference Committee?
The Constitution requires that both the House and Senate agree to identical legislative text before it is sent to the president for a signature. That means that whenever the Senate and the House pass two different versions of a bill, those differences must be resolved, and then the consensus bill (known as the “conference report”) must be passed again by both chambers before it can go to the president for signature.
Therefore, a conference committee is a temporary, bicameral (House and Senate) committee established to resolve differences between two versions of a bill. During this process, Republican and Democratic members of the House and Senate (appointed by the majority leadership of both chambers) work through differences and then send a final product back to each chamber. Once the conference report comes back to the House and Senate for approval, it cannot be amended. It is an “up or down” vote—meaning take it or leave it—in each chamber.
Conference vs. Standing Committee Procedure Hearings
The process for standing committees is different from the process for conference committees. Standing committees usually hold public hearings to receive testimony from experts and other affected parties to figure out how best to craft a policy. Conference committees, however, move directly into working out differences between the House and Senate-passed versions of the legislation after appointing members of the conference committees (called conferees). While conference committee meetings are also supposed to be open, the committee can vote to hold meetings behind closed doors, and often does.
Standing committees will hold markups, a process in which permanent committee members make changes to a proposed bill. During this process (and floor consideration if permitted), the committee still determines the scope of the legislation. But conference committees are composed of both House and Senate members temporarily appointed to resolve differences between two pieces of legislation within an existing scope of policies.
Committee Jurisdiction and Conferees
When a bill is introduced in either chamber of Congress (House or Senate), it is referred to different committees depending on what the bill proposes to do. These are called committees of jurisdiction. Conferees are generally members of the committee(s) of jurisdiction for the bill under consideration. But conference committees also include members of leadership for both chambers as a means of advancing the political and policy priorities of each. (Note: Even though the conference committee includes minority party members, they can effectively be excluded from the meetings, and their votes are not needed to adopt the conference report.)
“Resolving Differences”
This is something we’ve touched on a bit, but is important to understanding the scope of a conference committee’s work. The rules state that the conference committee is permitted to establish a compromise and modify language within “the limits of the disagreement.” That means if there is no mention of a policy in either bill, adding new policy language is not permissible under the rules of the conference committee (since differences cannot exist between something that did not exist originally). Only “germane” modifications, which are related to the differences between the two bills, are allowed during conference. Items that are fair game to be considered during conference committee are often called “conferenceable.”
Points of Order
A member of either chamber who believes a rule has been violated may raise a point of order. This can include an objection to the inclusion of a policy in the conference report that is not germane. Conferees generally avoid including language that would be subject to a point of order, but that is not always the case.
What About Reconciliation?
Reconciliation rules still apply to the conference report. If a provision in the conference report is in violation of the Byrd rule, then a point of order can be raised against the conference report. This provides limitations for conferees in terms of what can ultimately be included in the final agreement.
Glossary
Conferee: a member of the conference committee
Conference report: the final version of a bill negotiated by the House and Senate in a conference committee after passing separately in each chamber
Germane modification: directly relevant change to an existing difference between House- and Senate-passed legislation considered during a conference committee
Point of order: an objection raised to signify the violation of a rule of the chamber