Advocacy Glossary
Conference committee
What does conference committee mean?
A conference committee is a temporary group of House and Senate members who work out the differences between each chamber's version of a bill and produce one final text.
Why it matters for advocates
Both chambers must pass the exact same words before a bill can become law. A conference committee is one way to get there. Its final product, the conference report, gets an up or down vote in each chamber with no amendments allowed.
Formal conferences are rarer than they used to be. Leaders now often trade amended versions back and forth, a practice people call ping pong. Either way, the final negotiation is a small room, and the advocates who already know those members have the edge.
Related terms
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