Issues

With the House and the Senate chamber approving different versions of House Bill 1, the general appropriations act, the next step in the legislative process is to appoint a conference committee. 

The process dictates that all bills must be approved by both the House and the Senate before becoming law.  If the two chambers pass different versions of a bill, the originating chamber can simply concur and accept the changes made by the other chamber.  However, if the chamber refuses to concur, the bill must be considered by a conference committee in order to work out the differences.

For example, House Bill 1 started out in the House.  Through the House committee process and floor debate sections were added and amended that altered the original version.  This version was then sent to the Senate for consideration.  The Senate then changed the bill even more through the committee process and floor debate.  The House version and the Senate version of House Bill 1 are significantly different and the House did not want to concur with the Senate changes, thus one last revision in conference committee is required.

A conference committee is a joint committee composed of five members from each chamber.  The Lieutenant Governor appoints five members from the Senate and the Speaker of the House appoints five members from the House. 

The members of the conference committee meet to discuss the legislation and reconcile the differences.  Often times changes can be made with a simple amendment.  Other times, the committee may have to rewrite whole sections of the bill.  Unless instructed to go "outside the bounds", the conference committee may not alter text that is not in disagreement nor add new language not included in either original version.

When a final version is agreed upon, the conference committee takes a vote on the new version.  At least three of the five members of the conference committee from each chamber must approve the proposed compromise report that includes the compromised text of the bill and required attachments.

The conference committee then submits its report and new version to the House and the Senate, where each chamber has an opportunity to approve the modified version with a simple majority vote.  No amendments or changes are allowed, but if the chambers did not like the new version, they could send it back to conference committee for additional changes.  If the report is acceptable to both chambers, it is enrolled and sent to the Governor for approval.