John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019

(P. L. 116-92)

How To Use the NDAA 2020 Suite of Pages

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• On June 11, 2019, S. 1790, the Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020, was introduced and reported by the Senate Committee on Armed Services S. Rpt. 116-48.
• On June 19, 2019, H. R. 2500, the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020, was reported by the House Committee on Armed Services with H. Rpt. 116-120.
• On June 27, 2019, S. 1790 passed the Senate.
• On July 12, 2019, H. R. 2500 passed the House of Representatives.
• On September 17, 2019, the House struck all of S. 1790, inserted H. R. 2500 instead, and passed S. 1790.
• On September 18, 2019, Senate rejected House amendment to S. 1790.
• On September 19, 2019, a conference was held by conference members of the House and Senate.
• On December 9, 2019, conference report H. R. 116-333 was filed.
• On December 11, 2019, the House agreed to the conference report.
• On December 17, 2019, the Senate agreed to the conference report.
• On December 20, 2019, it became P. L. 116-92.

From the dates above, it is clear that Congress was trying to pass the bill before the end of the calendar year and the holidays. 

The individual section pages show the bill's section number and title of the section in the left column of the page.  At the top of the right column, the explanatory information is from the conference report.  When you see a phrase like the "conferees believe" that may provide an explanation of what was intended with that section.  There may be a Senate or House section mentioned in the conference explanation.  If there is and it could be found, it will be listed with the title of the report. 

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.