A Conference Committee is not Required

The New Republic has reported (along with other sources) that the Democrats may bypass the conference committee as the means by which to reconcile the House and Senate versions of the health care reform bill (EXCLUSIVE: Dems ‘Almost Certain’ to Bypass Conference):

According to a pair of senior Capitol Hill staffers, one from each chamber, House and Senate Democrats are “almost certain” to negotiate informally rather than convene a formal conference committee. Doing so would allow Democrats to avoid a series of procedural steps–not least among them, a series of special motions in the Senate, each requiring a vote with full debate–that Republicans could use to stall deliberations, just as they did in November and December.

[…]

“I think the Republicans have made our decision for us," the Senate staffer says. "It’s time for a little ping-pong.”

“Ping pong” is a reference to one way the House and Senate could proceed. With ping-ponging, the chambers send legislation back and forth to one another until they finally have an agreed-upon version of the bill. But even ping-ponging can take different forms and some people use the term generically to refer to any informal negotiations.

Now, this will doubt result in howls of “foul!” from opposition politicians and bloggers. (Indeed, a quick trip to Memeorandum proivde us the following examples:  Michele Malkin, The death of deliberative democracy, Pt. 9,997, Hot Air, TNR: No conference committee for ObamaCare,  and  Dr. Melissa Clothier,Suprise! Democrats Not Going To Conference On Health Care Bill–UPDATED)  However, this is not an illegitimate or unusual reconciliation process.  Rather, it is one of the options that are always available to the Congress in these circumstances. (If one is interested in the legislative process, I would recommend the following: Congressional Procedures and the Policy Process, and for a great general text on Congress: Congress and Its Members.)  My only question about the report is exactly how informal the negotiations are going to be. And just as the minority has every right to use whatever rules work to their advantage to delay (if not defeat) a given bill, so too does the majority have the right to use the rules that will help them pass legislation.

One of the things that I always find amusing about political commentary on legislative processes is that people often think that because it is the first time that they have heard of something, that it must be a new and nefarious procedure cooked up recently, when in fact these things typically are long-standing processes that people normally ignore.

I know that the typical US government textbook diagram of the legislative process makes it seem like conference committees are both the only means to reconcile a bill and run of the mill, but yet neither is true.

I would note that whether one likes it or not, the Republican strategy has been to be in lockstep opposition to the bill and to therefore self-exclude from the deliberative process.  For them to now argue that they are being excluded is disingenuous at best.

Cross-posted from PoliBlog.