This report discusses the steps that the Senate must take, and one more step that it may take, as it arranges to send a bill to conference committee

Bach, Stanley

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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 amotion for that purpose that is offered by direction of the House committee with jurisdiction overthe bill in question.  Procedures relating to conference committees are discussed at greater lengthin Conference Committees and Related Procedures: An Introduction (CRS Report 96-708) andResolving Legislative Differences in Congress: Conference Committees and AmendmentsBetween the Houses (CRS Report 98-696).Congressional Research Service ˜ The Library of CongressCRS Report for CongressReceived through the CRS WebOrder Code RS20454February 1, 2000Going to Conference in the SenateStanley BachSenior Specialist in the Legislative ProcessGovernment and Finance DivisionSummaryThere are three steps that the Senate must take, and one more step that it may take,as it arranges to send a bill to conference.  These steps rarely are contentious but theyhave the potential to become time-consuming.There are as many as four actions that the Senate may take on the floor in the processof sending a bill to a conference committee.1  Three of these actions are required; thefourth is not.   The Senate typically completes these stages of the legislative processquickly and routinely, most often by unanimous consent.  Singly or collectively, however,the four actions can require considerable time to complete if Senators choose to exercisetheir rights to debate one or more of them at length.The Four Steps in Going to ConferenceBefore a conference committee can convene, the two houses must complete the samethree actions. These actions take somewhat different forms in each house, depending onthe actions that the other house already has taken.First, the Senate and House must agree to disagree.  They must reach the stage ofdisagreement, which marks the point at which each house has disagreed formally to thelegislative proposal of the other.  The Senate takes this first action either by insisting onits own amendment(s) to a House-passed bill (or amendment) or by disagreeing  to theHouse’s amendment(s) to a Senate-passed bill (or amendment).CRS-22  In practice, the Senate’s Presiding Officer exercises no discretion; he or she appoints a list ofconferees assembled by committee and party leaders.3 Representatives can offer additional motions to instruct once 20 calendar days have passed sinceHouse and Senate conferees were appointed.Second, the two houses must agree that they want to create a conference committeein order to resolve the legislative disagreement they have just acknowledged formally.  TheSenate takes this second step either by requesting a conference with the House or byagreeing to a request for a conference that the House already has made.Third, each house must appoint its members of the conference committee.  TheSpeaker appoints House conferees.  The Senate can elect its conferees, although it almostalways authorizes its Presiding Officer to appoint the conferees.  So the Senate must grantthis authority to the Presiding Officer before he or she can appoint the Senate’s conferees.2These are the three actions that each house must take.  In addition, there is anopportunity for each house to instruct its conferees immediately before they are formallyappointed.  By simple majority vote, each house can instruct its conferees to take a certainposition in conference, so long as the conferees would not violate their authority if theyagreed to that position.  However, instructions to conferees are not binding.  NoRepresentative or Senator can make a point of order against a conference report on theground that it is inconsistent with instructions that the House or Senate gave its conferees.In the House, one valid motion to instruct can be made after the House agrees to goto conference but before the Speaker names the House’s conferees.3  Similarly, a Senatorcan move to instruct Senate conferees after the Senate  takes all three required actions butbefore the Presiding Officer announces the list of Senate conferees.  In the Senate, thereis no limit on the number of motions to instruct that Senators can make.  Any motion toinstruct, and the instructions in the motion, must be read before the Senate begins todebate it, unless the Senate agrees by unanimous consent to dispense with the reading.Once the Senate has begun to debate a motion to instruct, any Senator who has beenrecognized can move to table the motion (unless the time for debating the motion iscontrolled by a unanimous consent agreement).Taking These Steps on the Senate FloorThe Senate normally completes these actions quickly and routinely.  Most often, ittakes the three required steps by agreeing to a single unanimous consent request, afterwhich the Presiding Officer immediately announces the names of Senate conferees.  Inpractice, Senators do not often make motions to instruct their conferees.The Majority Leader usually makes a unanimous consent request such as thefollowing:Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate disagree to theHouse amendments to the bill, S. 1, that the Senate agree to the conferencerequested by the House on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses, and that theChair be authorized to appoint the conferees on the part of the Senate.CRS-34 Floyd M. Riddick and Alan S. Frumin, Riddick’s Senate Procedure. Senate Document No. 101-28; 101st Congress, 2nd Session; 1992, pp. 127-130..5 Congressional Record, May 19, 1994, pp. 11102-11196.If any Senator objects to such a unanimous consent request, the Majority Leader canmake motions to take each of the same three actions.  He may not offer one motion to takeall three actions.  Each motion is debatable under the regular rules of the Senate.  Thus,all three motions are subject to extended debate, and the Senate may invoke cloture on anyor all of them if that is necessary to bring the debate to a close.  Senators may offer variousmotions, including amendments, during the Senate’s consideration of the first motion–thatthe Senate reach the stage of disagreement–and the second motion–that the Senate agreeto go to conference.  These motions, which rarely are offered, are listed in Riddick’sSenate Procedure.4 After the Senate approves the three-part unanimous consent request or after it agreesto the last of the three motions, which authorizes the Presiding Officer to appoint Senateconferees, Senators then can make motions to instruct those conferees.  A motion toinstruct is fully debatable, and Senators can offer amendments to the instructions.  Afterthe Senate disposes of a motion to instruct–either by voting for or against it, or by votingto table it–another such motion is in order.  Only when no Senator seeks recognition tooffer another motion to instruct does the Presiding Officer proceed to appoint the Senate’sconferees.Motions to instruct Senate conferees are unusual, and multiple motions to instruct arerare.  In 1994, however, the Senate considered and agreed to six separate motions toinstruct the Senate’s conferees on H.R. 3355, the Violent Crime Control and LawEnforcement Act of 1994.5

Going to Conference in the Senate

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Going to Conference in the Senate

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