Debates Sponsors and other legislators may comment on the bill during its second and third reading. Because the Indexes are published after the end of the session, you may need to use the Legislative Synopsis and Digest for dates of consideration for a bill in the current session of the General Assembly 3. Following introduction, bills are referred to a committee based on the subject of the bill. The committee recommends to the full chamber whether or not the bill should be enacted. These committee reports appear in the Journals.
Most reports are noteworthy only for their brevity and lack of substantive comment.
Some do contain more useful information, however, and for this reason they should be reviewed. When the House and Senate cannot agree on specific language in a bill, the conference committee attempts to reconcile the differences. The conference report then may contain explanations of these differences and reasoning behind the compromise language. Many bills become law without having gone through a conference committee, however. Since the mid-1970's, House committee meetings have been recorded on audiotapes.