Where the rubber meets the road

National Guard, Oct 1998

A hey part of every congressional year occurs when the House and the Senate join forces in the conference committee to hammer out their differences with the defense spending bills. Here's how it all happens.

fter much wrangling over defense spending, House and Senate conferees reached a compromise last month on legislation that will move the military through another year until budget time comes up again.

It takes members of Congress months to finish a process that will ultimately decide how much money National Guardsmen will receive to operate their tanks or repair their trucks. But why? Quite simply, it's a complicated process.

The complexity of turning legislation into law was built into the democratic system for a reason: to ensure all concems are addressed. Here is a guide to what happens once the president reports how much the Department of Defense will need in the upcoming year:

Think of writing laws in much the way an essay is written by a group of people. There is a significant amount of give and take. Everyone has an opinion and everyone has an idea of what they would like to see in the final copy.

They bring their individual essays together and debate whose ideas should be included and whose should be dropped in the final product. They compromise on a final version and edit the document by cutting and pasting from each others' thoughts. Laws are made in a similar manner Defense officials and the president craft a budget that fulfills what they believe to be the needs of the military. The defense budget begins as four separate bills with each chamber drafting their different versions of an authorization bill and an appropriations bill. The authorization bill gives the Pentagon permission to spend money and dictate policy changes; the appropriations bill allocates a fixed amount of spending.

From there, the bills are channeled into committees and subcommittees. For the defense authorization bills, that means the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) and the House National Security Committee (HNSC). The appropriations bills are referred to the House and Senate appropriations committees (HAC and SAC). Each committee has several subcommittees that focus on specific areas of the military, for instance, personnel, procurement or military construction among others. These subcommittees each scrutinize the bills, decide which parts are feasible and what amendments should be made. For example, the president's proposed budget may call for additional funding for operations and maintenance for the National Guard. Senate authorizers debate the bill in subcommittees. Once passed by the subcommittee, the bill goes to the full committee and finally on to the Senate floor. The Senate may decide the Guard deserves more or less funding than the president's recommendation and amend the bill to reflect what they consider appropriate funding.

Usually, only one version of the two authorization bills is passed through both chambers. The other is gutted and portions are pieced into the other. Once the authorization bill passes the Senate, it goes through the same process in the House. First to the HNSC subcommittee, then to the full committee and then for consideration on the floor of the House.

If the version passed by the House dif fers from the one passed by the Senate, it will be referred to a conference committee. The conference committee is comprised of senators and representatives who work together to reconcile the differences between the two versions of the bill. Once an agreement is reached, the bill then must pass through both chambers before proceeding to the president's desk for signature.