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1 Stanley Bach, Going to Conference in the Senate 1 (2000)

handle is hein.crs/crsuntaaace0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Order Code RS20454 February 1, 2000 CRS Report for Congress Received through the CRS Web Going to Conference in the Senate Stanley Bach Senior Specialist in the Legislative Process Government and Finance Division Summary There are three steps that the Seniate mu1Lst tae, anid onie more step that it may tae, as it arranges to senid a billito coniferenice. These steps rarely are con1ten~tious but they hav e the potenitial to become time-consuing.11zl There are as many as four actions that the Senate may take on the floor in the process of sending a bill to a conference committee.1 Three of these actions are required; the fourth is not. The Senate typically completes these stages of the legislative process quickly and routinely, most often by unanimous consent. Singly or collectively, however, the four actions can require considerable time to complete if Senators choose to exercise their rights to debate one or more of them at length. The Four Steps in Going to Conference Before a conference committee can convene, the two houses must complete the same three actions. These actions take somewhat different forms in each house, depending on the actions that the other house already has taken. First, the Senate and House must agree to disagree. They must reach the stage of disagreement, which marks the point at which each house has disagreed formally to the legislative proposal of the other. The Senate takes this first action either by insisting on its own amendment(s) to a House-passed bill (or amendment) or by disagreeing to the House's amendment(s) to a Senate-passed bill (or amendment). 1 Like the Senate, the House typically arranges by unanimous consent to go to conference. Alternatively, the House can arrange for a conference by agreeing by simple majority vote to a motion for that purpose that is offered by direction of the House committee with jurisdiction over the bill in question. Procedures relating to conference committees are discussed at greater length in Conference Committees and Related Procedures: An Introduction (CRS Report 96-708) and Resolving Legislative Differences in Congress: Conference Committees and Amendments Between the Houses (CRS Report 98-696). Congressional Research Service *° The Library of Congress

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