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

Bach, Stanley

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

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Congressional Research Service ò The Library of CongressCRS Report for CongressReceived through the CRS WebOrder Code 98-382 GOVUpdated January 24, 2001Conference Reports andJoint Explanatory StatementsStanley BachSenior Specialist in the Legislative ProcessGovernment and Finance DivisionWhen a conference committee completes its work successfully, the committeepresents and explains its agreements in two documents: first, a conference report; andsecond, a joint explanatory statement, sometimes called a statement of managers.  The conference report presents the formal legislative language on which theconference committee has agreed.  The joint explanatory statement explains the variouselements of the conferees’ agreement in relation to the positions that the House and Senatehad committed to the conference committee.Two copies of each document must be signed by a majority of the House confereesand by a majority of the Senate conferees.  One pair of the signed documents is retainedby each house’s conferees.  Thus, a conferee who supports the conference agreement signsfour signature sheets, two for the conference report and two for the joint explanatorystatement.  Of course, conferees who do not support the agreement are not expected tosign any of the signature sheets.  The House and Senate create a conference committee to resolve the disagreementsthat result when one house passes a bill and the other house then passes the same bill withone or more amendments.  It is those amendments that are in disagreement between thehouses and that are the subjects of conference negotiations.  In their conference report, theconferees propose a way to resolve the disagreement created by each of the amendments.Assume, for example, that the House passed a bill and that the Senate later passedthe same bill with three discrete amendments.  These Senate amendments are numberedin the order in which they would affect the House bill, and the conference report addresseseach of them in turn.  There are essentially three ways in which conferees can propose todispose of each amendment:  both houses can accept the Senate amendment, both housescan reject it, or both houses can agree to a compromise between the Senate amendmentand the corresponding provision of the House-passed bill.! With respect to the first amendment, the conference report may proposethat the Senate recede from its amendment--in other words, that theHouse’s position should prevail.  CRS-2! With respect to the second amendment, the conference report maypropose that the House recede from its disagreement to the Senateamendment and then concur in it--in other words, that the Senate’sposition should prevail.  ! And with respect to the third amendment, the conference report maypropose, first, that the House recede from its disagreement to the Senateamendment and then concur in it with a House amendment, the text ofwhich is printed in the conference report, and, second, that the Senatealso concur in this House amendment--in other words, that a compromisebetween the House and Senate positions should prevail.The conference report itself only contains formal statements of whatever proceduralactions the conferees propose that one or both houses take, and the formal legislativelanguage the conferees propose that the two houses approve.  Thus, the conference reportis essentially comparable to the text of a bill that a standing committee reports to theHouse or Senate.  The joint explanatory statement, on the other hand, corresponds to thewritten report that the standing committee usually prepares to accompany the bill and toexplain the committee’s decisions.  Clause 7(d) of House Rule XXII and paragraph 4 ofSenate Rule XXVIII describe the purpose of this statement in comparable terms.  TheSenate rule states in part that the “statement shall be sufficiently detailed and explicit toinform the Senate as to the effect which the amendments or propositions contained in [theconference] report will have upon the measure to which those amendments or propositionsrelate.”The joint explanatory statement typically identifies each major matter in disagreementthat was submitted to the conferees.  The statement then summarizes the House position,the Senate position, and the conferees’ recommendation.  When the conferees havenegotiated over a series of numbered amendments, the statement of managers is likely todiscuss each of these amendments in sequence.  When the conferees have negotiated overa bill passed by one house and an amendment in the nature of a substitute approved by theother, a situation that often arises, the statement is likely to discuss the House, Senate, andconference positions on each of the major issues that the two versions of the bill address.Like standing committee reports accompanying bills, joint explanatory statements oftencontain explanations of the conference committee’s intent that may prove informative aslegislative history.  Unlike standing committee reports, however, joint explanatorystatements may not contain statements of minority or additional views. Each conference report and joint explanatory statement are printed in the Houseportion of the Congressional Record; in addition, they are printed together as a singleHouse report.  Senate Rule XXVIII also requires that the report and statement be printedas a Senate report.  By unanimous consent, however, the Senate normally waives thisrequirement because the report and accompanying statement are printed as a House report,and there is no need for the same documents to be printed twice.

Conference Reports and Joint Explanatory Statements

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Conference Reports and Joint Explanatory Statements

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