Making laws
conference committee
A temporary House-Senate panel that negotiates one compromise text when the chambers pass different versions of a measure.
In full
Both chambers must pass exactly the same text before anything goes to the President. When their versions differ, they either bounce amendments back and forth or appoint conferees to negotiate a single compromise, reported back as a conference report that each chamber must approve without further amendment. In recent Congresses the ping-pong route has largely displaced formal conferences.
Also written as: conference report, conferees
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A plain-language explanation for civic education, not legal advice. When in doubt, the official source named above controls.