Senate Consideration and Appropriation Conference Reports

Once the House completes action on an appropriation bill, the Senate traditionally begins consideration of that House passed measure. All changes to the bill, whether in the Senate Appropriations Committee or on the Senate floor are considered as Senate amendments to the House passed bill. These amendments may take various forms including a full substitute or individual amendments. These amendments are then the focus of points of disagreement on the bill between the two Houses. These differences can be resolved in a variety of ways including shuttling the bill back and forth between the chambers, or holding a conference committee and devising a conference report with or without amendments in disagreement between the Houses. Each of these approaches carry different procedural ramifications. Congressional action on an appropriation measure is not complete until both the House and Senate have successfully disposed of all amendments between the Houses, eventually agreeing on an identical text pursuant to the Constitution - at which point the President acts on the bill.