So exactly how and when are conferees appointed or selected?
I believe the chairman of the House committee that the bill first came out of, who in this case would be Sensenbrenner, picks the conferees but the Speaker (Hastert) has the overall say.
Anyway, I believe the House cannot appoint their own conferees until the Senate's version of the bill passes -- because, obviously, if the Senate's version of a bill is rejected in the Senate, then there would be nothing to have a joint conference on.
The joint conference is to merge both the Senate bill and the House bill.
All we, or at least I, can hope for is that the House conferees will kill the Senate's sham bill.