Legislative glossary
Conference committee
Definition
A small bicameral panel that reconciles differences between House and Senate versions of a bill before final passage.
Why it matters
When the two chambers pass different versions of the same bill, somebody has to produce a single text. A conference committee, a handful of members from each chamber, picked by leadership, negotiates the final version, often behind closed doors and under deadline. It's one of the least visible and most powerful rooms in any legislature: whatever emerges gets a take-it-or-leave-it vote.
In the game
Reach Conference in The Bill to Law Game and you'll trade provisions across a negotiating table, deciding which chamber's language survives, and what you'll sacrifice to keep the deal alive.
Related terms
Comes up alongside