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Enactment of a Law
Senate and House Action on Conference
Reports
The recommendations of the conferees are incorporated in a written
report and a joint statement of managers, made in duplicate, both of which
must be signed by a majority of the conferees of each House. If there are
amendments upon which they were unable to agree, a statement to this effect
is included in the report. These are referred to as amendments is disagreement.
The conferees cannot report parts of amendments in disagreement. For example,
conferees must report in full agreement or disagreement when a bill had
gone to conference after one House had amended it with a complete substitute
for the other House's text.
One report, together with the papers if the House is to act on it
first, is taken by the House conferees, or managers, as they are termed
in that body, and subsequently presented by them to the House, with an
accompanying explanatory statement as to its effect upon the matters involved.
The report must lie over three days in the House before it may be considered,
except during the last six days of a session. The Senate conferees take
the other copy which is presented for printing under the requirements of
the Legislative Reorganization Act, as amended in 1970. To save time and
expense, this requirement is frequently waived in the Senate by unanimous
consent.
Normally, the House agreeing to a conference on a bill acts first
on conference report, but either House can act first if it has the official
papers. Conference reports are privileged in both the Senate and the House.
They cannot be amended, but must be voted upon in their entirety. If amendments
in disagreement were reported by the conferees, they are acted on after
the conference report is adopted and may be subject to amendment. After
adoption by the first House, the conference report is transmitted with
the official papers to the other House with a message announcing its action.
Assuming action by the House first, the Senate conferees could then
present their report and ask for its immediate consideration. It does not
have to lie over for three days in the Senate, as it does in the House,
and the motion to proceed to its consideration is not debatable; thus the
Senate may act immediately. A motion to recommit a conference report may
not be made in the second House acting on the report since the conferees
of the first House were discharged when their body agreed to the report.
If conferees reach a complete agreement on all of the House amendments
to a Senate bill, and the House adopts that report, the adoption of the
report by the Senate completes the legislative action on the bill. If,
however, there were amendments upon which an agreement had not been reached
by the conferees, the adoption of the report by both Houses leaves the
parliamentary status of these particular amendments in disagreement the
same as if no conference had been held.
If the amendments on which an agreement could not be reached were
House amendments, and the House acted first on the report, it could then
recede from its amendments, eliminating the amendments in disagreement;
then, if the Senate were to adopt the report, the bill would be cleared
for the President's signature. If they were Senate amendments and the House
acted first, the House could concur in the Senate amendments or concur
in them with amendments. If the Senate amendments were concurred in by
the House, that would clear the amendments in disagreement, and when the
Senate agreed to the conference report, the bill would be cleared for the
President's signature. If the House should concur in the Senate amendments
reported in disagreement with its own House amendments, after the Senate
agreed to the report, it could concur in the House amendments to the Senate
amendments which would clear the bill for the President's signature.
If the amendments reported in disagreement are not so disposed of,
a further conference on these amendments could be requested by one House
and agreed to by the other. When this happens, the two Houses usually appoint
the same conferees. Until all the amendments in disagreement are reconciled
by the two Houses, the bill cannot be presented to the President.
If a conference report is rejected by one of the Houses, it so notifies
the other body by message and usually requests another conference; however,
it may merely notify the second body of its action without requesting a
further conference, leaving further steps to be taken by the other House.
Endorsements showing these various legislative steps, and when taken, are
made on the engrossed bill.
When the two Houses reach a complete agreement on all the amendments,
the papers are delivered to the Enrolling Clerk of the House where the
bill originated. The Enrolling Clerk prepares a copy of the bill in the
form as finally agreed upon by the two Houses and sends it to the Government
Printing Office for "enrollment," which means historically "written
on parchment." The original papers on the bill are retained in the
files of the originating House until the end of a Congress, when they are
sent to the National Archives.
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