Order Code RS20480
Updated August 15, 2001
CRS Report for Congress
Received through the CRS Web
Congressional Budget Resolutions:
Motions to Instruct Conferees
Robert Keith
Specialist in American National Government
Government and Finance Division
Summary
Both the House and the Senate have procedures whereby the full bodies may issue
instructions to conferees on budget resolutions, usually in the form of a motion. The
practices of the House and Senate regarding such motions differ markedly in key
respects. First, the House resorts to such motions regularly (having considered 10 such
motions in the past 12 years), while the Senate seldom uses them. Second, the House
has considered only one motion per budget resolution, while the Senate considered five
motions on one budget resolution. Finally, the House regards the motion to instruct
conferees strictly as a prerogative of the minority party, while the Senate does not.
This report will be updated as developments warrant.
The Congressional Budget Act of 1974 requires the House and Senate to reach
agreement on at least one budget resolution each year.1 In most years, the House and
Senate initially pass separate versions of a budget resolution and then resolve their
differences through regular conference procedures, but sometimes the differences have
been resolved by means of the two chambers formally exchanging amendments.
Both the House and the Senate have procedures whereby the full bodies may issue
instructions to conferees on legislation.2 Instructions to conferees on a budget resolution
usually are issued in the form of a motion, but in at least one instance the Senate adopted
a simple resolution containing such instructions. If a motion (or resolution) instructing
1 For detailed information regarding the record of experience with budget resolutions, see: U.S.
Library of Congress, Congressional Research Service, Congressional Budget Resolutions:
Selected Statistics and Information Guide, by Bill Heniff Jr., CRS Report RL30297 (Washington:
September 2, 1999), 37 pages. The House and Senate have adopted at least one budget resolution
every year since 1975, except in 1998 (for FY1999).
2 For information on these procedures generally, see: U.S. Library of Congress, Congressional
Research Service, (1) Instructing Senate Conferees, by Richard S. Beth, CRS Report RS20209
(Washington: updated January 31, 2001), 3 pages; and (2) Instructing House Conferees, by
Stanley Bach, CRS Report 98-381 GOV (Washington: updated January 25, 2001), 2 pages.
Congressional Research Service ˜ The Library of Congress

---

CRS-2
conferees is agreed to, however, the instructions are not binding on the conferees and no
point of order would lie against the conference report on the ground that the instructions
had been violated.
The practices of the House and Senate regarding motions to instruct budget
resolution conferees differ markedly in key respects. First, the House resorts to such
motions regularly, while the Senate seldom uses them. As Table 1 shows, the House
considered such motions in 10 of the last 12 years, covering FY1991-2002. The House
regularly used such motions in earlier years as well. During this period, the Senate
instructed its conferees on only one budget resolution (FY2000), as discussed in more
detail below. For earlier years, the Senate precedents only cite one instance when budget
resolution conferees were instructed.3
Second, the House has considered only one motion per budget resolution, although
in one instance (FY1992) the motion was amended by a substitute. The Senate, on the
other hand, considered (on April 13, 1999) the following five motions to the FY2000
budget resolution, accepting four and rejecting one:
! Lautenberg motion, to include in the conference report provisions that
would reserve all Social Security surpluses only for Social Security, and
not for other programs (including other retirement programs) or tax cuts;
adopted by a vote of 98-0;
! Domenici motion, to include in the conference report a Roth/Breaux
modified amendment regarding Medicare reform and a section of the
Senate-passed budget resolution regarding the use of on-budget surpluses
for a prescription drug benefit; adopted by a vote of 57-42;
! Dodd motion, to include in the conference report a Dodd/Jeffords
modified amendment to provide for an increase in the mandatory spending
in the Child Care and Development Block Grant; adopted by a vote of 66-
33;
! Dorgan motion, to include in the conference report provisions that would
provide additional funding for income assistance for family farmers above
the level provided in the Senate-passed resolution; adopted by voice vote;
and
! Kennedy motion, to include in the conference report provisions that
would allow targeted tax relief for low- and middle-income working
families, and reserve a sufficient portion of projected non-Social Security
surpluses to extend significantly the solvency of the Medicare Hospital
Insurance Trust Fund and modernize and strengthen the program; rejected
by a vote of 54-45; a Domenici amendment to this motion was
withdrawn.
3 The Senate adopted S.Res. 562 on September 14, 1978, by a vote of 63-21. The measure
instructed the Senate conferees on the second budget resolution for FY1979 to insist on the Senate
position not to add $2 billion for public works spending. See the remarks of Senator Edmund
Muskie and others in the Congressional Record of September 13 and 14, 1978, at pages 29157-
29158 and 29391-29403, respectively.

---

CRS-3
Finally, the House regards the motion to instruct conferees strictly as a prerogative
of the minority party. In each of the 10 instances identified in Table 1, the motion was
made by the ranking minority member of the House Budget Committee. Although four
of the motions made in the Senate to instruct conferees on the FY2000 budget resolution
were made by members of the minority party, one was made by the chairman of the Senate
Budget Committee.
In both chambers, the content of a motion may range from a broad statement of
policy to a position focused more narrowly on one or a few issues. Further, there is no
clear pattern of acceptance or rejection of such motions in either chamber.

---

CRS-4
Table 1. Motions to Instruct House Conferees on Budget Resolutions: FY1991-2002
Fiscal
Congress/
H. Con.
Sponsor of
Date of
year
session
Res.
motion
Nature of instruction
Disposition
Vote
action
1991
101st, 2nd
310
—
[none]
—
—
—
1992
102nd, 1st
121
Gradison a
To ensure that within the reserve fund areas
Agreed to
Voice
05-09-91
specified in the Senate amendment,
pay-as-you-go legislation will not harm
working families and Medicare
beneficiaries, and will adhere to the 1990
budget process agreement between President
Bush and the Congress. a
1993
102nd, 2nd
287
Gradison
To agree to Senate provision relating to the
Agreed to
322-66
05-06-92
adoption of a joint resolution to amend the
U.S. Constitution to require a balanced
budget.
1994
103rd, 1st
64
Kasich
To agree to the highest level of deficit
Agreed to
413-0
03-25-93
reduction, the lowest levels of budget
outlays, and the lowest level of revenues
within the scope on the conference without
resorting to higher taxes on Social Security
beneficiaries.
1995
103rd, 2nd
218
Kasich
To agree to Senate provisions: reflecting a
Rejected
202-216
04-14-94
$26 billion 5-year deficit reduction by
agreeing to reduce the total spending levels
specified in the House-passed resolution by
specified amounts; and providing no further
cuts in defense spending if the President's
defense budget request is approved.
(continued on next page)

---

CRS-5
Fiscal
Congress/
H. Con.
Sponsor of
Date of
year
session
Res.
motion
Nature of instruction
Disposition
Vote
action
1996
104th, 1st
67
Sabo
To agree to revenue levels (within the scope
Rejected
183-233
06-08-95
of the conference) that exclude the revenue
effects of the Contract With America Tax
Relief Act and insist on House position
regarding the Earned Income Tax Credit.
1997
104th, 2nd
178
Sabo
To agree to Senate provisions on: levels of
Rejected
187-205
05-30-96
discretionary spending; “balance billing” of
Medicare patients by health care providers;
federal nursing home quality standards; and
protection under the Medicaid program
against spousal impoverishment.
1998
105th, 1st
84
Spratt
To agree to Senate provisions on limiting
Agreed to
Voice
06-03-97
10-year net cost of tax cuts to $250 billion
and fair distribution of tax cuts.
1999
105th, 2nd
284
—
[none]
—
—
—
2000
106th, 1st
68
Spratt
To insist that tax cuts set forth in the
Agreed to
349-44
04-12-99
reconciliation directives in the concurrent
resolution be reported at the latest possible
date within the scope of the conference and
to require that the reconciliation legislation
implementing these tax cuts not be reported
any earlier to provide Congress with time to
first enact legislation extending the solvency
of the Social Security and Medicare trust
funds.
2001
106th, 2nd
290
Spratt
To insist that reconciliation legislation
Rejected
198-210
04-10-00
implementing tax cuts be reported no earlier
than September 22, 2000, thereby allowing
time to enact legislation establishing a
universal prescription drug benefit, and that
the House recede to the lower tax cuts in the
Senate amendment.

---

CRS-6
Fiscal
Congress/
H. Con.
Sponsor of
Date of
year
session
Res.
motion
Nature of instruction
Disposition
Vote
action
2002
107th, 1st
83
Spratt
To increase the funding for education in the
Rejected
200-207
04-24-01
House resolution to provide for the
maximum feasible funding, provide that the
costs for coverage of prescription drugs
under Medicare not be taken from the
surplus of the Federal Hospital Insurance
Trust Fund, increase the funding provided
for Medicare prescription drug coverage to
the level set by the Senate amendment, and
insist that the on-budget surplus set forth in
the budget resolution for any fiscal year not
be less than the surplus of the Federal
Hospital Insurance Trust Fund for that
year.
a The Gradison motion was amended by a Panetta substitute. The House failed, by a vote of 132-284, to move the previous question on the
original Gradison motion.

---