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No Conference; No Conference Report
The Duncan Hunter National Defense
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009 (DHNDAA) was passed by
both Houses of Congress at the end of September 2008. On
September 17, 2008, S. 3001, the DHNDAA passed the Senate.
With the end of the 110th Congress quickly approaching, changes
were being made to the just passed S. 3001--somewhere by
someone. The result was the House amended version of S.
3001 that was passed by the House on September 24, 2008.
On September 27, 2008, Senator Levin explained this process in
the Senate as:
Over the last week, we
have worked around the clock to reconcile the Senate and
House versions of the Defense authorization bill. The
compromise version of the bill--the House amendment to S.
3001--has now been approved by the House by on overwhelming
bipartisan vote of 392-39.
After a brief discussion in
the Senate, the Senate agreed to the House amendment to S. 3001
on September 27, 2008. The bill is scheduled to be signed
into law on October 14, 2008.
Normally, after the Senate
and House pass different versions of the bill, conferees are
appointed and a conference is held to reconcile differences
between the two versions. A conference report is then
reported that explains the reconciliation. However, the
DHNDAA did not come with a conference and does not have a
conference report. As a result, there is nothing to
explain the current version of of S. 3001.
How To Use the DHNDAA
2009 Suite of Pages
The Contents page provides
links to the Armed Services Committees' reports and to a
document provided by Representative Waxman, the Chairman of the
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
Additional links will be provided to source documents as they
are identified. Due to the lack of a conference report,
attempts to identify sources will continue.
Under the best of
circumstances, I recommend not trying to identify
congressional intent and this is far from the best of
circumstances. As you can see from the table below, the
last time the Armed Services Committees provided reports was in
May 2008. Since then, the legislation--H. R. 5658 and S.
3001--was amended several times as the table below shows.
| September 27, 2008 |
S. 3001, as amended
by House, passes Senate |
| September 24, 2008 |
S. 3001 amended in
House and passed. Representative Waxman provides
explanation of Clean Contracting Act of 2008. |
| September 17, 2008 |
S. 3001 amended and
passed Senate |
| May 22, 2008 |
H. R. 5658 amended
and passed House |
| May 16, 2008 |
H. R. 5658 reported
by House Armed Services Committee with Report 110-652 and
supplemental report on May 20, 2008. |
| May 12, 2008 |
S. 3001 reported by
Senate Armed Services Committee with Report 110-335 |
In using these pages, compare the sections from an Armed
Services Committee report with the section of the DHNDAA. Pay attention to the
differences between report and law. In at least one case,
a report notes a revision to law but the section of the act only
states a "sense of Congress."
In the end, the reports
might help explain a section of the law or give you an idea
of the source of the section.
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