<P> Conference committees can be extremely contentious, particularly if the houses are controlled by different parties . House rules require that one conference meeting be open to the public, unless the House, in open session, votes to close a meeting to the public . Apart from this one open meeting, conference committees usually meet in private, and are dominated by the chairs of the House and Senate committees . </P> <P> House and Senate rules forbid conferees from inserting in their report matter not committed to them by either House . But conference committees sometimes do introduce new matter . In such a case, the rules of each House let a member object through a point of order, though each House has procedures that let other members vote to waive the point of order . The House provides a procedure for striking the offending provision from the bill . Formerly, the Senate required a Senator to object to the whole bill as reported by the conference committee . If the objection was well - founded, the Presiding Officer ruled, and a Senator could appeal the ruling of the Chair . If the appeal was sustained by a majority of the Senate, it had precedential effect, eroding the rule on the scope of conference committees . From fall 1996 through 2000, the Senate had no limit on the scope of conference reports, and some argued that the majority abused the power of conference committees . In December 2000, the Senate reinstated the prohibition of inserting matters outside the scope of conference . The rule changed again with the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, enacted in September 2007 . Now any single Senator may raise a procedural objection, a point of order, against subject matter newly inserted by the conference committee without objecting to the rest of the bill . Proponents of the measure may move to waive the rule . The affirmative vote of 60 Senators is required to waive the rule . If the point of order is not waived and the Chair rules that the objection is well - founded, only the offending provision is stricken from the measure, and the Senate votes on sending the balance of the measure back to the House . </P> <P> Most times, the conference committee produces a conference report melding the work of the House and Senate into a final version of the bill . A conference report proposes legislative language as an amendment to the bill committed to conference . The conference report also includes a joint explanatory statement of the conference committee . This statement provides one of the best sources of legislative history on the bill . Chief Justice William Rehnquist once observed that the joint conference report of both Houses of Congress is considered highly reliable legislative history when interpreting a statute . </P> <P> Once a bill has been passed by a conference committee, it goes directly to the floor of both houses for a vote, and is not open to further amendment . In the first house to consider the conference report, a Member may move to recommit the bill to the conference committee . But once the first house has passed the conference report, the conference committee is dissolved, and the second house to act can no longer recommit the bill to conference . </P>

What happens to a bill after a conference committee finishes