Conference Committee Proposal Rights and Policy Outcomes in the States

Abstract

Most states and Congress allow only one version of a bill to be reported out of a conference committee. Because of their control over the conference membership, party leaders may use conferences to produce nonmedian outcomes. However, in three states the rules allow a minority to propose its own competing conference report. A formal model demonstrates that this institutional design produces more moderate legislative outcomes despite the preferences of the majority coalition. The model’s predictions are tested using coalition sizes on conference report votes in the states. Controlling for other factors, chambers which allow the minority to propose a competing conference report have larger coalitions, on average, though this effect is mitigated by interchamber distance. Further, rejection of the conference bill is also much less likely because the majority cannot propose extreme bills. The article demonstrates that conference committee proposal rules are an important source of majority coalition power.