The following DEFINITIONS are available from the Senate Glossary reference page:

http://www.senate.gov/reference/glos...nce_report.htm

conference committee - A temporary, ad hoc panel composed of House and Senate conferees which is formed for the purpose of reconciling differences in legislation that has passed both chambers. Conference committees are usually convened to resolve bicameral differences on major and controversial legislation.

conference report - The compromise product negotiated by the conference committee. The "conference report," which is printed and available to Senators, is submitted to each chamber for its consideration, such as approval or disapproval.


The NumbersUSA website is urging everyone to contact their Senate and House reps regarding a "Visa Waiver Expansion" that has been wormed into the 9-11 bill.

What does all this mean? Well, if you do a Google search on:

"H.R. 1 - Implementing 9/11 Commission's Recommendations"

You will find, from the Library of Congress website, that this "9-11 Bill" passed the HOUSE on 9 January, 2007, and then passed the SENATE on 9 July, 2007. That is, the 9-11 Bill has passed BOTH CHAMBERS of Congress. However, because the exact wording in each bill varies somewhat, a "Conference Committee" has been called whereby a few Senators and a few House Reps have gotten together to smooth over those specific differences. Yesterday, on 25 July, 2007, that "Conference Committee" of Senators and Reps filed their "Conference Report" — a final version of the whole 9-11 Bill that both the Senators and the Reps in that Conference Committee have agreed on.

That "Conference Report" has now been submitted to BOTH CHAMBERS of Congress. Again, that Conf. Report is a final version of the whole bill to be passed by both chambers of Congress.

AND this "Conf. Report" contains the Visa Waiver Expansion loophole.

SO, NumbersUSA has asked you to call your Senators AND House Reps to tell them to send the "Conf. Report" back to the "Conf. Committee" to strip out that Visa Waiver Expansion provision.

(I gather that, since the bill has already passed, legally and officially, that "amendments" can no longer be offered. What the Conf. Committee submits as their Conf. Report is either accepted or rejected. So, you must ask your Congress. Reps to bounce the "Conf. Report" back to "Conf. Committee" and surgically remove the Visa Waiver Program cancer inside.

Is this correct?)

Hope this helps, here are the LOC websites:


http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z ... 00001:@@@R
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/R?r ... 001:H08497