Federal Legislative History

If there are differences between the House and Senate versions of a bill, the last chamber to adopt its version may send its language back to the other chamber for further consideration in amended form. The first chamber may take up the amended version, or the two chambers may establish a conference committee to decide on the language together.  Each chamber appoints conferees, usually members of the original reporting committees, who may take up only those areas in disagreement, not the entire bill. A majority of the Senate conferees and a majority of the House conferees must agree on what to report back to their respective chambers.  Upon reaching agreement, a conference committee usually issues a report (generally printed as a House Report, H. Rept.) that contains two parts: the agreed upon text and a joint explanatory statement. The joint explanatory statement in the conference report may discuss the differences between the House and Senate passed language, discuss the reasons certain provisions were chosen over others, and provide additional information on the purpose of the legislation.
  
If passed by both chambers in identical form, the legislation is sent to the President.

Finding conference committee reports is similar to finding other congressional committee reports.  Some conference committee reports can be found in the Congressional Record.  Otherwise, your options are:

• GovInfo.gov has an archive of Congressional reports that begin with reports from the 16th Congress in 1819.    
• For Scalia Law students, don't forget that you can always search for committee reports using databases like ProQuest Congressional and ProQuest Legislative Insight. Choose Advanced Search and then limit your content type to Reports in the facet searching on the left side of the screen for the best results.