For most bills, the committee or subcommittee fails to take further action on the referred bill, effectively "killing" the measure at this point. (Occasionally, a committee will report a measure "unfavorably," with explicit recommendations against its passage, or it will report a bill "without recommendation," which has the same effect as an unfavorable report.)

If the bill passes the subcommittee with a favorable vote, it is sent back to the full committee for further consideration, hearings, amendment, and vote. If a committee votes out or "reports favorably" a bill back to the House or Senate, it is then "calendared" or scheduled for floor debate and vote in the full chamber. Each measure sent to the full chamber by the committee of reporting is accompanied by a committee report on the legislation.

Committee reports are uniquely identified by the following pieces of information: the numbers of the Congress and session, the chamber (House or Senate), the report number, the bill or resolution number being reported on, the committee, title, and date.

The committee's report summarizes the purpose and scope of a bill, reasons for its approval, sets forth the committee's findings and recommendations, including a statement estimating the costs (or revenues) resulting from its potential enactment for the current fiscal year and five successive fiscal years. All changes in existing law must be indicated in the report and the text of laws being repealed must be set out. The courts, legislative analysts and historians depend on committee reports to reveal the "legislative intent" of the committee in recommending the measure. For further information on how a bill is reported out, read "Reported Bills" in How Our Laws Are Made, a detailed explanation of the legislative process.

Occasionally, committee reports are not linked to a certain bill or piece of legislation, but rather serve as background on a public policy issue. These reports are done by committee staff in their oversight role. Thus, a small number of the committee reports on THOMAS will not show an accompanying bill number nor be linked to the text of a bill.

But, where appropriate, THOMAS includes hot links to related Bill Digest summaries and full text versions of the accompanying legislation.