Evening star., 1937-08-08
Ry PERTRAM RENEDICT.

TINE legislation enacted during
the closing days OF Congress
probably will be formulated,
4 for all practical purposes, by
conference committees When the
two houses pass bill in different
forms, the differences are ironed out
by committee on which each house
is equally represented.
This conference committee is COM
posed usually of three. occasionally
OF five, members of each house When
three members from each are chosen,
they are generally the chairman of
the regular committee in charge of
the bill originally, the next ranking
majority member of that committee,
and the ranking minority member.
II some other member has actively
sponsored the. bill. he may be ap-
pointed in lieu of the second ranking
majority member of the committee.
Senator Norris has estimated that
about three-fourths of all important
bills enacted pass through conference
committees. At the end of session,
when Congress is itching to 60 home,
out demur the compromise worked out
IN conference. The conference report
Is the more apt to be accepted because
neither house is allowed to change a
bill from the form reported by the
conference committee. The conference
report must be either accepted or
rejected as whole.
$3.50 Compromise Usual.
Usually the conference committee
works out something of halfway
compromise. That is, If the bill passed
by the House and the bill passed by
the Senate differ on 10 points of about
equal import. the Senate may be
deferred to on five points and the
House on five. If any of these issues
in dispute has seemed especially i'm
portant to the House, that body may
instruct its conferees to insist on the
House version The Senate is less
likely thus to bind its conferees, more
likely to give them free hand.
The conference committee is sup
posed to confne itself to the points
in controversy between the two houses
The Senate rules provide: "Conferees
shall not insert in their report matter
not committed to them by either
house. nor shall they strike from the
bill matter agreed to by both houses" Z"
If this provision should be disregarded,
a point of order may be made against
the conference report. If the point
of order be sustained. the report must
be re-committed to conference.
In actual practice. however, the
requirement is often violated, and the
bill as finally enacted may be the
child of the bicameral conferees Some
students of government hold that
the Conference Committee has become
virtually third branch of Congress
Charges are occasionally heard that
special interests opposed to a BILL
not strong enough to defeat it out
right, try to kill it by maneuvering
to make the Senate form and the
House form different. Then pressure
may be brought to bear to have the
conferees disagree, so that the bill
dies as effectively as If defeated by
vote.
IL u StDillSleIlCS uet ldllS 10
agree in the first session of Congress,
Its deliberations carry over to the
next session Of that Congress. If
there is no agreement at the final
session Of q Congress, the next Con-
gress starts out with an absolutely
clean slate on the subject
Unique System In U. S.
The United States Is practically
the only great Nation in which con-
ference committees function. OF
course, they are non-existent In those
countries with only one house in the
national legislature. And most coun-
tries with two houses have given
greater powers to one than to the
other. 20 that agreement between the
two Is not necessary. In such coun-
tries. conferences to agree on bill
are apt to be only informal and un-
ofhcial. In Great Britain, the House
Of Lords in 1911 was made subordinate
to the House Of Commons in most
important legislative matters, so that
In practise Lords now usually defers
when Commons insists.
Considering that in the United
States the Senate and the House have
equal powers, absolute deadlocks be-
tween them on really vital measures
have been relatively rare. 1t can't
be said that either branch is apt to
be consistently more conservative or
more radical on legislation on which