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Conference
Role in Process
 | House and Senate hold a conference when there are differences in a bill
as passed in the House and Senate. Members are appointed to the conference, with
instructions, and they negotiate on how to resolve the differences. The conferees
report back and the House and Senate vote to accept (or reject) the report of the
conference. The decisions of the conference are recorded in the report that results
from the proceedings.
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| The report on the conference between the House and Senate on the
appropriations bill is the final word on what Congress intends with the appropriated
funds. The report is a document that records the decisions made in the conference
process and makes available to other members of Congress and the public the results of the
negotiation process between the representatives of the House and Senate. The
conference report is preceded by reports from the House and Senate committees, but the
final word on Congressional action is the conference report.
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| The conference report sets forth the appropriations levels in terms of
money limits of what can be used by the agency and for what purpose. The report
supplements and explains the language of the actual statute which appropriates the funds -
the statutory language is usually sparse. Not all directives from Appropriations
Committees need to have the force of actual law - agency staff know better than to cross
Appropriations. Those who do not learn fast or are gone fast.
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| The report also establishes additional controls on programs through
mechanisms such as "earmarks," language stating the expectations and desires of
the Appropriations Committees, limitations on the use of funds, and "across the
board" cuts. The report allows Appropriations to set policy in areas where it
may not have primary responsibility and to direct agency focus to areas to which it may
not wish to direct it.
 | For example, by increasing funding for grants to states and tribes at
the expense of contracts funding, the Appropriations Committee can force the agency's hand
since it will have to cut back its contracted support (and what that can buy) and give
money to entities over which there is less direct agency control.
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| Sometimes there is a conflict between the report language and the
statutory language of the legislation that establishes and guides programs. In these
situations, the agency has a problem. It is between a rock and a hard place.
This is when the political aspects of the budget process come to the fore.
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Key Players
| The main players in the conference process are the members of the Senate
and House who are appointed to the conference. These members have the responsibility
for representing the position of their respective chambers, to carry out their
instructions, and to obtain ultimate approval and passage of the appropriations bill as
agreed to in conference.
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| Interest groups, including agencies, may attempt to influence the
conference process. The conference is the last point in the Congressional process
where changes can be incorporated into the appropriations act. It is possible to
have incorporated into the final result items that were no included either in the House or
Senate versions of the bill.
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Timing
After the House and Senate have passed bills that differ.
Documents and Links
The report of the conference.
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