Don’t Sleep on the Fine Print – Why Amendments and Report Language Matter

The House and Senate are working their way through big-ticket bills. The National Defense Authorization Act and appropriations bills are must-pass legislation that are often over 1,000 pages each. For those closely tracking these bills, it’s tempting to quickly check if their core priority is included and move on. Both for single-issue advocates and for those not closely tracking these bills, it’s important not to sleep on this legislation and its attached amendments.

For each of these bills, the House Rules Committee considers hundreds, if not thousands, of amendments before the bill moves to the House floor. In the case of NDAA, there are over 1,300 amendments. These amendments can cover all issue areas as long as they have a loose connection to the underlying bill. While very few of these amendments will move forward, it’s a good way to see where Member priorities are to either advance or mitigate based on where you stand on the issue. The Senate also considers amendments to these bills as well as to reconciliation bills, and, similarly, it shows where Senators stand on certain issues.

In addition to amendments, report language can share more information on top-line priorities in the bill text. It also includes the minority position on the bill and committee amendments. It’s always important to check the report language to see if priorities are included in this text.

It’s a busy season in DC and is not anticipated to slow down as Congress rushes to meet (and likely miss) multiple deadlines. Consider reviewing all these must-pass bills on your agenda to ensure nothing gets missed.