Instructing House Conferees

Instructing House Conferees

Instructing House Conferees
Updated May 21, 2021
Congressional Research Service
https://crsreports.congress.gov
98-381

Instructing House Conferees

The two houses must agree on the same final version of a bill before it can be presented to the
President. The House and Senate often reach final agreement on major legislation through
negotiations among conferees that the two houses appoint. Because a conference committee is a
negotiating forum, the two houses impose few rules governing its work, leaving it to the
conferees themselves to decide how they can conduct their negotiations most productively. Also,
the House and Senate give their conferees considerable latitude regarding the content of the
agreements they can reach. Nonetheless, there are circumstances, described in this report, under
which the House can vote to give instructions to its conferees.
The House may vote to instruct its conferees under two circumstances: (1) before its conferees
are appointed; and (2) after they have been appointed for a time specified in the rules but have not
yet filed a report. In each case, the House might instruct its conferees to insist on a certain House
position in conference, to accept a certain Senate position, or to attempt to negotiate a
compromise position with the Senate that satisfies certain conditions or requirements. The House
is instructing only its own conferees and not the conferees appointed by the Senate. Under clause
7(c) of Rule XXII, motions to instruct House conferees “may not include argument,” meaning
that the motions cannot include language presenting reasons to support the instructions.
Whenever the instructions are given and whatever form they may take, there are two points to
bear in mind about instructions to conferees. First, it is not in order to instruct House conferees to
reach some agreement that is not within their authority as conferees. The House requires that its
conferees limit themselves to the matters on which the two houses have disagreed and that they
resolve each such matter within the scope of the differences between the House and Senate
positions.1 Second, instructions to conferees are never binding; no point of order can be sustained
against a conference report on the grounds that it is not consistent with instructions that the House
gave its conferees.
Instructions Before Conferees Are Appointed
The House takes three steps in the process of arranging a conference with the Senate. First, the
House usually either disagrees to the Senate’s amendments to a bill the House has passed or
insists on its amendments to a bill the Senate has passed. Second, the House either requests a
conference with the Senate or agrees to the conference that the Senate has already requested. And
third, the Speaker then appoints the House conferees to meet and negotiate with their Senate
counterparts.
These three stages often occur quickly, routinely, and one right after the other. However, between
the second and third stages—after the House decides to go to conference but before the Speaker
appoints the House conferees—a motion to instruct the conferees is in order. Only one valid
motion to instruct is in order at this time. (If one motion is made and a point of order is sustained
against it, a second motion is in order.) The House debates this motion under the one-hour rule,
and under House Rule XXII, clause 7(b), the hour is equally divided between the majority and
minority parties. In practice, the time is usually controlled by the chairman and ranking minority
Member of the House committee with jurisdiction over the bill. However, if both of those
Members support the motion, another Member who opposes the motion may claim and control
one-third of the time for debating it. The instructions could be amended if the House did not order
the previous question on the motion to instruct. In practice, the previous question, which ends
debate and brings the House to an immediate vote, is ordered after the first hour of debate on a
motion to instruct. If a majority did not order the previous question, then debate could continue

1 See CRS Report RS20219, House Conferees: Restrictions on Their Authority.
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Instructing House Conferees

and an amendment could be offered. To preclude debate on the motion to instruct, a Member can
move to lay the motion on the table after it is read.
Under well-established House precedents, recognition to propose the motion to instruct before
conferees are appointed is a prerogative of the minority party. The Speaker is likely to give first
preference in recognition to the minority leader or to the ranking minority Member of the
committee that originally had reported the bill to the House. If neither of these Members seeks
recognition, the Speaker is likely to recognize a minority party committee member before a
minority party member who does not serve on the committee of jurisdiction.
Instructions After Conferees Have Been Appointed
Motions to instruct House conferees are also in order beginning 45 calendar days and 25
legislative days after conferees were appointed if the conferees have not yet filed a conference
report. A legislative day begins each time the House meets after an adjournment. If the House
goes out of session for several days after a conference committee is appointed but before it has
reported, only calendar days will accumulate and count toward the requirement. Such motions to
instruct are also in order during the last six days of a session if the House’s conferees have been
appointed for at least 36 hours without presenting their report. However, this opportunity only
arises after the House has fixed the date of adjournment sine die, which, in current practice, it
often does only hours before the end of the session. The 45 calendar day and 25 legislative day
period starts from the time both the House and the Senate have formally appointed conferees
through action on the floor.
Once the time requirement has been met, motions to instruct are privileged under Rule XXII,
clause 7(c). More than one motion to instruct is in order, and Members of both parties are entitled
to recognition to make such motions. However, the Speaker temporarily defers consideration of a
motion to instruct that is made under clause 7(c). When a Member announces to the House his or
her intention to make such a motion and presents the text of the motion, the Speaker designates a
time or place in the legislative schedule for considering the motion on the next calendar day the
House meets. The motion is subject to debate under the same terms as the motion to instruct
offered before conferees are appointed.
Instructions Not Allowed When a Conference
Committee Report Is Recommitted
After the House orders the previous question on a conference committee report, a Member might
move to recommit the conference report if the Senate has not already approved the report. When
the Senate agrees to a conference report, the effect of that vote is to discharge the Senate
conferees, and there is no longer a conference committee to which the House might recommit the
report. In the past, nonbinding instructions were permitted in a motion to recommit a conference
report. When the House agreed to H.Res. 8 in the 117th Congress, however, it eliminated the
motion to recommit with instructions that was previously permitted by clause 2(a) of House Rule
XIX. It also omitted the provision of Rule XXII prohibiting instructions in motions to recommit
from containing argument because it was no longer applicable.
The motion to recommit is a prerogative of the minority party unless no minority party Member
seeks recognition to offer the motion. The motion to recommit is not debatable. If a motion to
recommit a conference report is agreed to, then the same House conferees return to meet with the
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Senate conferees. Any report emerging from these further negotiations is procedurally treated as a
new report with a new number.

Author Information

Elizabeth Rybicki

Specialist on Congress and the Legislative Process

Acknowledgments
This report was originally written by Stanley Bach, a former Senior Specialist in the Legislative Process at
CRS.

Disclaimer
This document was prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). CRS serves as nonpartisan
shared staff to congressional committees and Members of Congress. It operates solely at the behest of and
under the direction of Congress. Information in a CRS Report should not be relied upon for purposes other
than public understanding of information that has been provided by CRS to Members of Congress in
connection with CRS’s institutional role. CRS Reports, as a work of the United States Government, are not
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Congressional Research Service
98-381 · VERSION 12 · UPDATED
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