About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

1 (December 7, 2006)

handle is hein.crs/crsmthaahaz0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Order Code 98-382 GOV Updated December 7, 2006 SCRS Report for Congress Conference Reports and Joint Explanatory Statements Christopher M. Davis Analyst in American National Government Government and Finance Division When a conference committee completes its work successfully, the committee presents and explains its agreements in two documents: first, a conference report; and second, a joint explanatory statement, often called a statement of managers.! The conference report presents the formal legislative language on which the conference committee has agreed. The joint explanatory statement explains the various elements of the conferees' agreement in relation to the positions that the House and Senate had committed to the conference committee. Two copies of each document must be signed by a majority of the House conferees and by a majority of the Senate conferees. One pair of the signed documents is retained by each house's conferees. Thus, a conferee who supports the conference agreement signs four signature sheets, two for the conference report and two for the joint explanatory statement. Of course, conferees who do not support the agreement are not expected to sign any of the signature sheets. The House and Senate create a conference committee to resolve the disagreements that result when one house passes a bill and the other house then passes the same bill with one or more amendments. It is those amendments that are in disagreement between the houses and that are the subjects of conference negotiations. In their conference report, the conferees propose a way to resolve the disagreement created by each of the amendments. Assume that the House passed a bill and that the Senate later passed the same bill with, for example, three discrete amendments. These Senate amendments are numbered in the order in which they would affect the House bill, and the conference report addresses each of them in turn. There are essentially three ways in which conferees can propose to dispose of each amendment: both houses can accept the Senate amendment, both houses can reject it, or both houses can agree to a compromise between the Senate amendment and the corresponding provision of the House-passed bill. In this example: 1 This report was written by Stanley Bach, formerly a Senior Specialist in the Legislative Process at CRS. The listed author updated the report and is available to answer questions concerning its contents. Congressional Research Service . The Library of Congress Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most