In the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

, a conference report refers to the final version of a

bill Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Plac ...

that is negotiated between the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

and the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

via

conference committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...

. It is printed and submitted to each

chamber Chamber or the chamber may refer to: In government and organizations * Chamber of commerce, an organization of business owners to promote commercial interests *Legislative chamber, in politics * Debate chamber, the space or room that houses delib ...

for its consideration, such as approval or disapproval. It contains the "

statement of managers In the United States Congress, a Statement of Managers must accompany a conference report In the United States Congress, a conference report refers to the final version of a bill that is negotiated between the House of Representatives and the Senate ...

," a section-by-section explanation of the agreement.{{cite web, url = http://www.c-span.org/guide/congress/glossary/confrepo.htm, url-status = dead, archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20000111035721/http://www.c-span.org/guide/congress/glossary/confrepo.htm, archive-date = 2000-01-11, title = CONFERENCE REPORT

Publication procedure

An amendment to Rule XXVIII of the

Standing Rules of the United States Senate The Standing Rules of the Senate are the parliamentary procedures adopted by the United States Senate that govern its procedure. The Senate's power to establish rules derives from Article One, Section5 of the United States Constitution: "Each ...

states: ::9(a)(1) It shall not be in order to vote on the adoption of a report of a committee of conference unless such report has been available to Members and to the general public for at least 48 hours before such vote. If a point of order is sustained under this paragraph, then the conference report shall be set aside. Normally, conference reports are printed and made available online in the

Congressional Record The ''Congressional Record'' is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress, published by the United States Government Publishing Office and issued when Congress is in session. The Congressional Record Inde ...

the day after they have been filed. In those cases when the

Government Publishing Office The United States Government Publishing Office (USGPO or GPO; formerly the United States Government Printing Office) is an agency of the legislative branch of the United States Federal government. The office produces and distributes information ...

(GPO) is unable to print a conference report the next day, the GPO will scan the manuscript and post the searchable PDF of the manuscript on this web page. Otherwise, links to the conference reports as they appear in the Congressional Record will be posted on this web page. Links to each conference report will be date and time stamped to establish when the conference report was first made available online to the public. If a conference report is scanned in manuscript form, that version will be superseded when the printed conference report is made available in the Congressional Record. Links to a conference report in the Congressional Record will be superseded when the conference report is made available in the congressional reports database. Although the PDF of the scanned manuscript of a conference report will be searchable, handwritten notes or other illegible text may or may not be completely searchable. Regardless, the image of the handwritten notes, will be captured in the PDF of the scanned manuscript.

References

Legislative branch of the United States government