Conference Committee
If bills passed by the House and Senate differ substantially, a senator or representative (member) may ask for ‘unanimous consent” to appoint a conference to resolve the differences. In order to proceed with a conference, the other chamber has to agree to a conference.
Generally, the individual requesting the conference is the chair of the committee of jurisdiction. In order to have a conference, one of the chambers must actually have taken the step of voting on the other chamber’s bill.

Appointment of committee members. or conferees
The Speaker of the House appoints the conferees for the House side. The Presiding Officer of the Senate appoints conferees for the Senate side. One way that a conference can be delayed is by one of the chambers refusing to appoint conferees.

Conference committee membership
Generally, the conferees are taken from the committee of jurisdiction, most often the leadership of the committee and subcommittee. In recent years, however, the congressional leadership has been taking more of an active role in conferences, especially for major items such as appropriations bills. Additionally, a member can be appointed for a specific issue only.

Scope of conference
A conference committee is not supposed to act on items that were not amended by either house. Substitutes to the items in disagreement are supposed to be germane and are not to include additional matters that were not referred to the committee by either chamber.

Committee procedures
At least one of the conference committee meetings must be public. Generally, the conference meets publicly at the beginning to make opening statements and when it is ready to vote on the final agreement. In order for the conference committee report to be filed it must have a majority vote of each group.

Conference report
Ideally, the conference report will have all matters resolved. At that point, the report is returned to both chambers for their adoption.

Floor consideration of a conference report
Conference reports cannot be amended on the floor. They must be voted either up or down. Occasionally, a matter is reported in disagreement. When this occurs, the report contains a statement of the disagreement, and these provisions will be acted upon separately.