11/09/2005: Legislative Process: What Process Will the S. 1932 and H.R. 4241 Go Through From Here On?
As the House is about to mark up full house debate of H.R. 4241, the House version of Budget Omnibus Reconciliation bill, people are anxious to learn what process the bills from the Senate and the House will go through as people want to participate in the final legislative process. Unless the a member of the House introduces the Senate immigration bill as an amendment on the floor, it is obvious that the Senate S. 1932 bill and the House H.R. 4241 will go to conference of the two Houses. Next question then is who will be the members of the Conference Committee from each House. This will not be known until the differences in the two bills between the House and the Senate are fixed by the passage of the bills by each House and in each House a motion is taken to send them to the conference. The members of conference committee are not appointed by the Speaker of House and the President of Senate until it gets to this stage. Stay tuned for the development of the budget reconciliation legislative process.
In the meantime, as a civic lesson, people may want to read the following two materials:
Legislative Process http://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/legprocessflowchart.pdf
Conference Committee Process.(see Attachment #4) http://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/legprocessflowchart.pdf