In the United States, a legislative conference committee in the Congress and in bicameral state legislatures is a committee appointed by the members of the two houses to resolve disagreements on a bill passed in different versions of each House. It is composed usually of the ranking Members of the committees of each House that originally considered the legislation.

Conference committees operate between the second reading and third reading and are unnecessary if both houses pass the same bill in the second reading. They can be extremely contentious if the houses are controlled by different parties. Conference committees can also introduce riders into a bill, particularly in the case of a budget bill.

Once a bill has been passed by a conference committee, it goes directly to the floor of both houses for a vote, without an amendment stage by regular Congressmen. However, party leaders can insert new language after the conference bill is signed off on, as happened in December 2005, when language opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling and shielding the makers of viral vaccines was added.

Westminster System

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In systems of government based on the Westminster System, conference committees are unknown because the lower house tends to have much more power than the upper house, thereby making negotiations unnecessary.

Conference Committee