RULES AND RULINGS: FINAL LEGISLATIVE STEPS


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  However, the text of Joint Rule 3 (1) is more an example of how a confer-
ence committee might proceed than it is a rule restricting the committee's
authority to negotiate:
      The joint committee shall, at a convenient hour agreed upon, meet and
state to each
   other, verbally or in writing, the reason of their respective houses for
or against the
   disagreement, and confer thereon, and shall report to their respective
houses such agree-
   ment as they may arrive at, if any, by the vote of at least 2 of the members
of the commit-
   tee representing each house.
   Trying to resolve the differences between the houses by a conference is
a
measure of last resort: as long as it is possible to come closer to agreement
by
amending an amendment received from the other house within the confines of
the rules of germaneness, that will be the preferred approach. Consequently,
the conference often must take a fresh look at the problem and, Jefferson
notwithstanding, delete a part of the text already agreed to by both houses
in
order to develop a different solution.
   When the conferees have reached agreement, they submit a report reciting
the action required in each house to return the proposal to the stage at
which
the compromise solution can be added. Attached to the report may be an
amendment or substitute amendment which sets forth language changes re-
quired in the proposal to implement the compromise.
      Joint Rule 3 (2) When the conference committee has reached agreement
the report
    shall be first presented, if a senate bill or joint resolution, to the
assembly and, if an
    assembly bill or joint resolution, to the senate. The vote by each house
on the conference
    report constitutes final action on the proposal.
      (3) Approval of the conference report by a roll call vote in each house
sufficient to
    constitute final passage of the proposal shall be final passage of the
bill or joint resolu-
    tion in the form and with the changes proposed by the report.
    When a conference report is before the house, the question is approval
or
rejection of the report and that single vote carries with it any amendment
or
substitute amendment attached to the report. Since there is no separate vote
on the legislation submitted with the conference report, such legislation
is
never directly before the house and its germaneness cannot be challenged
by a
point of order. By adopting the report, the legislature approves the manner
in which the conference committee has used its authority (Senate Journal
4/6/84,
page 874):
      The question was: Adoption of the Committee of Conference Report [on
Assembly
    Bill 706, relating to the financial assistance program for septic tank
replacement and
    rehabilitation]?
      Senator Lee raised the point of order that the Committee of Conference
Report was
    not germane.
      The chair [Pres. Risser] ruled the point of order not well taken.
   The legislation attached to the conference report included provisions
deal-
 ing with the mound system permit program administered by the Department
 of Industry, Labor and Human Relations. Had this been a regular substitute
 amendment, it might have been held a nongermane expansion of the scope of
 the proposal which was limited to the septic tank program administered by
 the Department of Natural Resources. Since only the conference report was
 before the Senate, President Risser had to rule that the chair could not
reach