Senate and the House of Representatives insisted on revising Taft's proposals so that they conformed more closely to the traditions of the federal judiciary. Congress established an annual conference of the Chief Justice of the United States (or the senior associate justice if the Chief is unable), and the senior circuit judge (now called the chief judge) from each judicial circuit and charged the conference with a general mandate to advise on the administrative needs of the federal courts. The act required the senior judge in each district to prepare an annual report of the business of the district's court. The conference would use these reports to prepare suggestions for the temporary transfer of judges, pending the approval of all courts involved. This expansion of the authority to transfer judges fell far short of Taft's concept of a permanent corps of at-large judges. Congress established 24 temporary judgeships, but adhered to the principle of fixed residency for district judges. Congress also declined to make the attorney general a member of the conference, although the act permitted the Chief Justice to request the attorney general to report on the business of the courts. Even without a formal relationship with Congress or the Department of Justice (which then administered the federal courts), the conference offered the judiciary a means of communicating its administrative needs. The conference was renamed the Judicial Conference of the United States in 1948. In 1956, Congress provided for the inclusion of the chief judge of the Court of Claims. At that time, the judges of the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals (CCPA) declined to include a representative on the conference. The size of the conference nearly doubled following an act of 1957 that provided for the appellate and district judges in each circuit to elect a district judge to represent the circuit on the conference for a term of three years. In 1961 the chief judge of the CCPA began serving on the conference. The chief judges of these Court of Claims and the CCPA served on the conference until 1982 when their courts merged to become the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In 1990, Congress provided for the inclusion of the chief judge of the United States Court of International Trade. In 1996, Congress expanded the district judge term up to five years and allowed senior district judges to serve. Present tasks