On April 13, 2018, H. R. 5515, was
introduced. On April 16, 2018, the Chairman of the House
Armed Services Committee introduced a discussion draft on his
Accelerating the Pace of Acquisition Reform Act of 2018.
That draft contained several provisions that appeared in H. R.
5515 and was discussed on the
Wifcon Forum. Other significant dates for the bill are
- May, 15, 2018,
H. R. 5515, the National Defense Authorization Act for
Fiscal Year 2019, was amended and reported by the House
Committee on Armed Services with
H. Rept. 115-676.
- May 24, 2018,
H. R. 5515 passed the House of Representatives.
- June 5, 2018,
S. 2987 was introduced and reported out of Senate
Committee on Armed Services with S. Rept.
115-262.
- June 18, 2018, the Senate crossed out
the text in H. R. 5515 and replaced it with a Senate
amendment.
- July 23, 2018, conference report H.
Rpt.
115-863 was filed.
- July 26, 2018, the House approved the
conference report.
- August 1, 2018, the Senate approved
the conference report.
- August 13, 2018, signed as Public Law
No:
115-232.
From the dates above, it is clear that
Congress was trying to pass the bill before its August recess
which it accomplished. From reading Conference Reports
every year, that may be the reason I felt that the conference
report was less explanatory than usual. Since I felt the
conference report was brief, I added some additional explanatory
material from House Report
115-676. As of August 18, 2018, I did not add any
additional explanatory material from S. Rept.
115-262. If you want to do additional research, the
conference report mentions the sections from the earlier House
and Senate bills. You can find most of those sections by
looking at the House or Senate bill and the corresponding
report. If a report, other than the conference report,
does not have additional explanation for a bill's section, the
bill section was probably added during floor amendments.
In that case, you can try to find an explanation in the
Congressional Record.
Although congressional intent is a myth
and best left to judges, the best explanation of what Congress
intended appears in the conference report. Use the reports
as explanatory material to try to understand the language in a
bill. Every now and then by researching the Congressional
Record, you can get a Senator's or Representative's reason for a
section that they introduced in a bill. |
