House appoints conferees for more than 170 bills ahead of conference deadline

The House announced conferee appointments for a large slate of bills and agreed to a series of requests to form conference committees as the conference deadline arrived.

Clerk (reading assignments on behalf of the Speaker) listed conferee appointments for dozens of House bills — including HB 5, HB 67, HB 196, HB 231, HB 238, HB 285, HB 319, HB 361, HB 425, HB 429, HB 433, HB 496, HB 569, HB 590, HB 650, HB 892 and others — and for numerous Senate bills such as SB 115, SB 122, SB 137, SB 142, SB 225, SB 351, SB 364, SB 382, SB 491, SB 494, SB 496, SB 543, SB 620, SB 644 and SB 827. For each measure the Clerk named the delegates appointed to serve as the House conferees, and identified companion bill relationships where applicable.

The House also twice voted to accede to the Senate’s requests for committees of conference on previously reported legislation and, in other cases where the Senate had rejected House amendments, moved to "insist on its amendments" and request conference. The presiding officer put the motions and each was agreed to by the membership by voice vote.

The Clerk told members the list of conference assignments is available on LIS and IHOD, and urged members to check the "conference committee assignments" section on their member page to confirm whether they are a conferee. The Clerk noted that when a member’s name is listed first, that member serves as lead conferee and has the responsibility to obtain a conference report if one will be forthcoming.

Members were told that roughly 170 conference reports have been filed and about 147 remain outstanding; the Speaker’s office said members and caucuses will meet tomorrow ahead of floor action and that staff will circulate guidance by email on how to review conferee assignments.