House Conferees: Selection

House Conferees: Selection

House Conferees: Selection
Updated July 30, 2020

Congressional Research Service
https://crsreports.congress.gov
RS20227

House Conferees: Selection

conference committee is composed of a House and a Senate delegation appointed to
reconcile the differences between House and Senate versions of a measure passed by
A both. The members of each chamber’s delegation are known as its conferees or,
alternatively, managers. Congress might opt to use a conference committee to resolve
disagreements on controversial or complex measures or after an exchange of amendments
between the two chambers proves unsuccessful. This report specifically focuses on how House
conferees are selected. For a more expansive discussion of procedures on going to conference, see
CRS Report 98-696, Resolving Legislative Differences in Congress: Conference Committees and
Amendments Between the Houses.
House Rule I, clause 11, empowers the Speaker to appoint the House delegation to each
conference committee. The rule sets out general guidelines for appointing conferees, as follows:
 “the Speaker shall appoint no less than a majority who generally supported the
House position as determined by the Speaker;”
 “shall name those who are primarily responsible for the legislation;” and
 “shall, to the fullest extent possible, include the principal proponents of the major
provisions of the bill or resolution passed or adopted by the House.”
The Speaker’s exercise of discretion in naming conferees cannot be limited by motion or
challenged through a point of order.1
The Speaker usually appoints conferees immediately after the House has voted to request or agree
to a conference but may do so, in part or in whole, at a later date.2 Once appointed, names of
conferees and their date of appointment can be found in several sources, including the
Congressional Record, the Calendars of the House, and Congress.gov.
Size of Delegation
The Speaker determines the size and party ratio of the House delegation but usually consults with
leaders of the reporting committee(s), and perhaps with the majority and minority leaders, before
doing so. A majority of the conference delegation will always be selected from members of the
majority party. As a result, the total number of conferees is usually odd. There is no fixed or
required size; each chamber’s conferees vote as a unit in conference so that neither side can
outvote the other. That is to say, majority support is needed separately from each chamber’s
conferees to approve a proposal put before the committee.
House conference delegations can vary greatly in size, with a minimum of three members (two
from the majority and one from the minority). In recent Congresses, delegations have ranged
from as few as five to as many as 74. The greater the complexity and scope of a bill, the more
conferees one might expect the Speaker to appoint.

1 Congressional Record, vol. 123, (October 12, 1977), pp. 33434-33435. Constitution, Jefferson’s Manual, and Rules of
the House of Representatives, One Hundred Sixteenth Congress, H.Doc. 115-177, 115th Cong., 2nd sess., [compiled by]
Thomas J. Wickham, Parliamentarian (Washington: GPO, 2019), §637, pp. 361-363.
2 For example, the Speaker might appoint conferees from the primary committee of jurisdiction first to negotiate over
the entire text and later appoint conferees from other committees to consider specified text within their jurisdiction.
Similarly, the Speaker could appoint majority party members first, naming minority party members after choosing to
consult with the minority leader on recommendations.
Congressional Research Service
1

House Conferees: Selection

Composition
As previously noted, Rule I empowers the Speaker to appoint conferees. More specifically, the
rule directs the Speaker to name Members “primarily responsible for” the measure in question. It
also requires that a majority of House conferees should support the chamber’s position on the
measure but permits the Speaker to determine, for this purpose, what the “House position” is.
Normally, the Speaker names members of the reporting committee based on lists submitted by its
chair and ranking minority member. These lists generally reflect committee seniority but not
always strictly, and they generally include the Members who managed the measure on the floor.
The Speaker, however, is not bound to appointing conferees from the lists submitted.
Members who are not on the reporting committee can also be appointed as conferees. For
example, the Speaker might deem it appropriate to appoint sponsors of major floor amendments
as conferees, regardless of whether or not they are members of the reporting committee. This type
of appointment might particularly occur when the committee was hostile to the amendments in
question. Also, the Speaker sometimes appoints conferees from committees that were not
responsible for a measure, especially when the matters in conference include Senate provisions
not germane to the House bill or other provisions that fall within those panels’ jurisdiction.
Appointments of this kind create no jurisdictional precedent in relation to the bill in conference.3
Rule III, clause 3(b), further permits the Speaker to appoint Delegates and the Resident
Commissioner as conferees.
Limited Conferees
In some scenarios, the Speaker will appoint conferees and authorize them to negotiate only on
specified matters. Conferees whose authority is restricted in this way may be called “limited”
conferees; those authorized to negotiate on the entire bill are called “general” conferees. For
measures that were referred to more than one committee, the Speaker frequently names a panel of
conferees from each committee of referral so as to represent the interest of each.4 Usually, the
Speaker authorizes these panels as limited conferees for provisions falling within the jurisdiction
of that committee. As previously mentioned, the Speaker also sometimes names sponsors of floor
amendments as conferees or names members from committees to negotiate on Senate
amendments not germane to the House measure. Appointments by the Speaker, particularly on
larger bills, often include panels of limited conferees, typically consisting of just three Members
(two from the majority party and one from the minority), in addition to the appointed core of
general conferees.
Kinds of Limited Conferees
Some limited conferees may be named as “additional” conferees to negotiate along with the
general conferees on the specified matters. For example, a Member might be named an additional
conferee only for a floor amendment he or she had sponsored. A Member may also be named in
lieu of another conferee only for the negotiation of a specified matter. A third possibility is that
limited conferees be named as “sole” conferees on the matters specified. (In this case, the other
conferees’ authority must also be limited in such a way that they cannot negotiate on these

3 Constitution, Jefferson’s Manual, and Rules of the House of Representatives, One Hundred Sixteenth Congress, §637,
pp. 361-363.
4 Charles W. Johnson, John V. Sullivan, and Thomas J. Wickham Jr., House Practice: A Guide to the Rules,
Precedents, and Practices of the House (Washington: GPO, 2017), ch. 13 (“Conferences Between the Houses”), §7, p.
346.
Congressional Research Service
2

House Conferees: Selection

matters.) This form of appointment may occur when the committee from which the panel is
drawn has jurisdiction over a limited portion of the bill or over a nongermane Senate amendment.
Sometimes, also, separate panels of conferees from the same committee may be named to
negotiate on different portions of the bill. Especially in this case, different panels may have
overlapping memberships.
Changes in Conference Delegations
Under Rule XXII, clause 7(c), the House may entertain a motion to discharge its entire delegation
of conferees (or, alternatively, to instruct them).5 The motion is in order only with one day’s
notice and only after House conferees have been appointed for more than 45 calendar days,
including 25 legislative days (normally equal to days of session). During the last six days of a
session, they must instead have been appointed only for more than 36 hours.6
A conferee may resign only with the consent of the House (often given by unanimous consent,
pursuant to a written request to the Speaker or by request of another Member, typically a leader of
the conferees). The Speaker, however, may fill vacancies on a conference delegation and also
possesses discretion to remove conferees or name additional ones at any point. The Speaker may
also at any time alter the grouping of limited conferees or further specify the subjects they are
authorized to address. If a second conference becomes necessary (because the first conference
cannot agree or its report is rejected), the Speaker usually reappoints the same conferees but may
also, at discretion, alter the makeup of the delegation.
Acknowledgements
This report was originally written by Richard S. Beth, a specialist on legislative procedure who
has since retired from CRS. The author listed is available to answer questions on the topic.

Author Information

Michael Greene

Analyst on Congress and the Legislative Process

5 The House must also be in possession of the papers—the bill and any amendments submitted to conference—for it to
discharge its conferees.
6 In contemporary practice, adjournment resolutions are usually not approved until very shortly before the adjournment
takes place. As a result, it is difficult to know when the “last six days” of a session begin and, therefore, when this
exception would apply.
Congressional Research Service
3

House Conferees: Selection

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
subject to copyright protection in the United States. Any CRS Report may be reproduced and distributed in
its entirety without permission from CRS. However, as a CRS Report may include copyrighted images or
material from a third party, you may need to obtain the permission of the copyright holder if you wish to
copy or otherwise use copyrighted material.

Congressional Research Service
RS20227 · VERSION 5 · UPDATED
4