[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4889 Introduced in House (IH)]







109th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4889

    To grant the power to the President to reduce budget authority.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 7, 2006

 Mr. Gingrey introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on the Budget, and in addition to the Committees on Rules and 
   Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the 
  Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall 
           within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To grant the power to the President to reduce budget authority.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Separate Enrollment and Line Item 
Veto Act of 2006''.

SEC. 2. STRUCTURE OF LEGISLATION.

    (a) Appropriations Legislation.--
            (1) The Committee on Appropriations of either the House or 
        the Senate shall not report an appropriation measure that fails 
        to contain such level of detail on the allocation of an item of 
        appropriation proposed by that House as is set forth in the 
        committee report accompanying such bill.
            (2) If an appropriation measure is reported to the House or 
        Senate that fails to contain the level of detail on the 
        allocation of an item of appropriation as required in paragraph 
        (1), it shall not be in order in that House to consider such 
        measure. If a point of order under this paragraph is sustained, 
        the measure shall be recommitted to the Committee on 
        Appropriations of that House.
    (b) Authorization Legislation.--
            (1) A committee of either the House or the Senate shall not 
        report an authorization measure that contains new direct 
        spending or new limited tax benefits unless such measure 
        presents each new direct spending or new limited tax benefit as 
        a separate item and the accompanying committee report for that 
        measure shall contain such level of detail as is necessary to 
        clearly identify the allocation of new direct spending or new 
        limited tax benefits.
            (2) If an authorization measure is reported to the House or 
        Senate that fails to comply with paragraph (1), it shall not be 
        in order in that House to consider such measure. If a point of 
        order under this paragraph is sustained, the measure shall be 
        recommitted to the committee of jurisdiction of that House.
    (c) Conference Reports.--
            (1) A committee of conference to which is committed an 
        appropriations measure shall not file a conference report in 
        either House that fails to contain the level of detail on the 
        allocation of an item of appropriation as is set forth in the 
        statement of managers accompanying that report.
            (2) A committee of conference to which is committed an 
        authorization measure shall not file a conference report in 
        either House unless such measure presents each direct spending 
        or limited tax benefit as a separate item and the statement of 
        managers accompanying that report clearly identifies each such 
        item.
            (3) If a conference report is presented to the House or 
        Senate that fails to comply with either paragraph (1) or (2), 
        it shall not be in order in that House to consider such 
        conference report. If a point of order under this paragraph is 
        sustained in the House to first consider the conference report, 
        the measure shall be deemed recommitted to the committee of 
        conference.

SEC. 3. WAIVERS AND APPEALS.

    Any provision of section 2 may be waived or suspended in the House 
or Senate only by an affirmative vote of three-fifths of the Members of 
that House duly chosen and sworn. An affirmative vote of three-fifths 
of the Members duly chosen and sworn shall be required to sustain an 
appeal of the ruling of the Chair on a point of order raised under that 
section.

SEC. 4. SEPARATE ENROLLMENT.

    (a)(1) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, when any 
appropriation or authorization measure first passes both Houses of 
Congress in the same form, the Clerk of the House of Representatives 
(in the case of a measure originating in the House of Representatives), 
or the Secretary of the Senate (in the case of a measure originating in 
the Senate) shall disaggregate the items as referenced in section 5(4) 
and assign each item a new bill number. Henceforth each item shall be 
treated as a separate bill to be considered under the following 
subsections. The remainder of the bill not so disaggregated shall 
constitute a separate bill and shall be considered with the other 
disaggregated bills pursuant to subsection (b).
    (2) A bill that is required to be disaggregated into separate bills 
pursuant to subsection (a)--
            (A) shall be disaggregated without substantive revision, 
        and
            (B) shall bear the designation of the measure of which it 
        was an item prior to such disaggregation, together with such 
        other designation as may be necessary to distinguish such 
        measure from other measures disaggregated pursuant to paragraph 
        (1) with respect to the same measure.
    (b) The new bills resulting from the disaggregation described in 
paragraph (1) of subsection (a) shall be immediately placed on the 
appropriate calendar in the House of origination, and upon passage, 
placed on the appropriate calendar in the other House. They shall be 
the next order of business in each House and they shall be considered 
and voted on en bloc and shall not be subject to amendment. A motion to 
proceed to the bills shall be nondebatable. Debate in the House of 
Representatives or the Senate on the bills shall be limited to not more 
than 1 hour, which shall be divided equally between the majority leader 
and the minority leader. A motion further to limit debate is not 
debatable. A motion to recommit the bills is not in order, and it is 
not in order to move to reconsider the vote by which the bills are 
agreed to or disagreed to.

SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS.

    For purposes of this Act:
            (1) The term ``appropriation measure'' means any general or 
        special appropriation bill or any bill or joint resolution 
        making supplemental, deficiency, or continuing appropriations.
            (2) The term ``authorization measure'' means any measure 
        other than an appropriations measure that contains a provision 
        providing direct spending or targeted tax benefits.
            (3) The term ``direct spending'' shall have the same 
        meaning given to such term in section 250(c)(8) of the Balanced 
        Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985.
            (4) The term ``item'' means--
                    (A) with respect to an appropriations measure--
                            (i) any numbered section,
                            (ii) any unnumbered paragraph, or
                            (iii) any allocation or suballocation of an 
                        appropriation, made in compliance with section 
                        2(a), contained in a numbered section or an 
                        unnumbered paragraph but shall not include a 
                        provision which does not appropriate funds, 
                        direct the President to expend funds for any 
                        specific project, or create an express or 
                        implied obligation to expend funds and--
                                    (I) rescinds or cancels existing 
                                budget authority;
                                    (II) only limits, conditions, or 
                                otherwise restricts the President's 
                                authority to spend otherwise 
                                appropriated funds; or
                                    (III) conditions on an item of 
                                appropriation not involving a positive 
                                allocation of funds by explicitly 
                                prohibiting the use of any funds; and
                    (B) with respect to an authorization measure--
                            (i) any numbered section, or
                            (ii) any unnumbered paragraph,
                that contains new direct spending or a new targeted tax 
                benefit presented and identified in conformance with 
                section 2(b).
            (5) The term ``limited tax benefit''--
                    (A) The term ``limited tax benefit'' means--
                            (i) any revenue-losing provision which 
                        provides a Federal tax deduction, credit, 
                        exclusion, or preference to 100 or fewer 
                        beneficiaries under the Internal Revenue Code 
                        of 1986 in any fiscal year for which the 
                        provision is in effect; and
                            (ii) any Federal tax provision which 
                        provides temporary or permanent transitional 
                        relief for 10 or fewer beneficiaries in any 
                        fiscal year from a change to the Internal 
                        Revenue Code of 1986.
                    (B) A provision shall not be treated as described 
                in subparagraph (A)(i) if the effect of that provision 
                is that--
                            (i) all persons in the same industry or 
                        engaged in the same type of activity receive 
                        the same treatment;
                            (ii) all persons owning the same type of 
                        property, or issuing the same type of 
                        investment, receive the same treatment; or
                            (iii) any difference in the treatment of 
                        persons is based solely on--
                                    (I) in the case of businesses and 
                                associations, the size or form of the 
                                business or association involved;
                                    (II) in the case of individuals, 
                                general demographic conditions, such as 
                                income, marital status, number of 
                                dependents, or tax return filing 
                                status;
                                    (III) the amount involved; or
                                    (IV) a generally-available election 
                                under the Internal Revenue Code of 
                                1986.
                    (C) A provision shall not be treated as described 
                in subparagraph (A)(ii) if--
                            (i) it provides for the retention of prior 
                        law with respect to all binding contracts or 
                        other legally enforceable obligations in 
                        existence on a date contemporaneous with 
                        congressional action specifying such date; or
                            (ii) it is a technical correction to 
                        previously enacted legislation that is 
                        estimated to have no revenue effect.
                    (D) For purposes of subparagraph (A)--
                            (i) all businesses and associations which 
                        are related within the meaning of sections 
                        707(b) and 1563(a) of the Internal Revenue Code 
                        of 1986 shall be treated as a single 
                        beneficiary;
                            (ii) all qualified plans of an employer 
                        shall be treated as a single beneficiary;
                            (iii) all holders of the same bond issue 
                        shall be treated as a single beneficiary; and
                            (iv) if a corporation, partnership, 
                        association, trust or estate is the beneficiary 
                        of a provision, the shareholders of the 
                        corporation, the partners of the partnership, 
                        the members of the association, or the 
                        beneficiaries of the trust or estate shall not 
                        also be treated as beneficiaries of such 
                        provision.
                    (E) For purposes of this paragraph, the term 
                ``revenue-losing provision'' means any provision which 
                results in a reduction in Federal tax revenues for any 
                one of the two following periods--
                            (i) the first fiscal year for which the 
                        provision is effective; or
                            (ii) the period of the 5 fiscal years 
                        beginning with the first fiscal year for which 
                        the provision is effective.
                    (F) The terms used in this paragraph shall have the 
                same meaning as those terms have generally in the 
                Internal Revenue Code of 1986, unless otherwise 
                expressly provided.

SEC. 6. IDENTIFICATION OF LIMITED TAX BENEFITS.

    (a) Statement by Joint Tax Committee.--The Joint Committee on 
Taxation shall review any revenue or reconciliation bill or joint 
resolution which includes any amendment to the Internal Revenue Code of 
1986 that is being prepared for filing by a committee of conference of 
the two Houses, and shall identify whether such bill or joint 
resolution contains any limited tax benefits. The Joint Committee on 
Taxation shall provide to the committee of conference a statement 
identifying any such limited tax benefits or declaring that the bill or 
joint resolution does not contain any limited tax benefits. Any such 
statement shall be made available to any Member of Congress by the 
Joint Committee on Taxation immediately upon request.
    (b) Statement Included in Legislation.--(1) Notwithstanding any 
other rule of the House of Representatives or any rule or precedent of 
the Senate, any revenue or reconciliation bill or joint resolution 
which includes any amendment to the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 
reported by a committee of conference of the two Houses may include, as 
a separate section of such bill or joint resolution, the information 
contained in the statement of the Joint Committee on Taxation, but only 
in the manner set forth in paragraph (2).
    (2) The separate section permitted under paragraph (1) shall read 
as follows: ``Section 1021(a)(3) of the Congressional Budget and 
Impoundment Control Act of 1974 shall ___ apply to ___.'', with the 
blank spaces being filled in with--
            (A) in any case in which the Joint Committee on Taxation 
        identifies limited tax benefits in the statement required under 
        subsection (a), the word ``only'' in the first blank space and 
        a list of all of the specific provisions of the bill or joint 
        resolution identified by the Joint Committee on Taxation in 
        such statement in the second blank space; or
            (B) in any case in which the Joint Committee on Taxation 
        declares that there are no limited tax benefits in the 
        statement required under subsection (a), the word ``not'' in 
        the first blank space and the phrase ``any provision of this 
        Act'' in the second blank space.
    (c) President's Authority.--If any revenue or reconciliation bill 
or joint resolution is signed into law pursuant to Article I, section 
7, of the Constitution of the United States--
            (1) with a separate section described in subsection (b)(2), 
        then the President may use the authority granted in section 
        1021(a)(3) only to cancel any limited tax benefit in that law, 
        if any, identified in such separate section; or
            (2) without a separate section described in subsection 
        (b)(2), then the President may use the authority granted in 
        section 1021(a)(3) to cancel any limited tax benefit in that 
        law that meets the definition in section 1026.
    (d) Congressional Identifications of Limited Tax Benefits.--There 
shall be no judicial review of the congressional identification under 
subsections (a) and (b) of a limited tax benefit in a conference 
report.

SEC. 7. JUDICIAL REVIEW.

    (a) Expedited Review.--
            (1) Any Member of Congress may bring an action, in the 
        United States District Court for the District of Columbia, for 
        declaratory judgment and injunctive relief on the ground that a 
        provision of this Act violates the Constitution.
            (2) A copy of any complaint in an action brought under 
        paragraph (1) shall be promptly delivered to the Secretary of 
        the Senate and the Clerk of the House of Representatives, and 
        each House of Congress shall have the right to intervene in 
        such action.
            (3) Any action brought under paragraph (1) shall be heard 
        and determined by a three-judge court in accordance with 
        section 2284 of title 28, United States Code.
Nothing in this section or in any other law shall infringe upon the 
right of the House of Representatives or the Senate to intervene in an 
action brought under paragraph (1) without the necessity of adopting a 
resolution to authorize such intervention.
    (b) Appeal to Supreme Court.--Notwithstanding any other provisions 
of law, any order of the United States District Court for the District 
of Columbia which is issued pursuant to an action brought under 
paragraph (1) of subsection (a) shall be reviewable by appeal directly 
to the Supreme Court of the United States. Any such appeal shall be 
taken by a notice of appeal filed within 10 days after such order is 
entered; and the jurisdictional statement shall be filed within 30 days 
after such order is entered. No stay of an order issued pursuant to an 
action brought under paragraph (1) of subsection (a) shall be issued by 
a single Justice of the Supreme Court.
    (c) Expedited Consideration.--It shall be the duty of the District 
Court for the District of Columbia and the Supreme Court of the United 
States to advance on the docket and to expedite to the greatest 
possible extent the disposition of any matter brought under subsection 
(a).
    (d) Severability.--If any provision of this Act, or the application 
of such provision to any person or circumstance is held 
unconstitutional, the remainder of this Act and the application of the 
provisions of such Act to any person or circumstance shall not be 
affected thereby.

SEC. 8. TREATMENT OF EMERGENCY SPENDING.

    (a) New Point of Order.--Title IV of the Congressional Budget Act 
of 1974 is amended by adding at the end the following new section:

                 ``point of order regarding emergencies

    ``Sec. 408. It shall not be in order in the House of 
Representatives or the Senate to consider any bill or joint resolution, 
or amendment thereto or conference report thereon, containing an 
emergency designation if it also provides an appropriation or direct 
spending for any other item or contains any other matter, but that bill 
or joint resolution, amendment, or conference report may contain 
rescissions of budget authority or reductions of direct spending, or 
that amendment may reduce amounts for that emergency.''.
    (b) Conforming Amendment.--The table of contents set forth in 
section 1(b) of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 
1974 is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 407 the 
following new item:

``Sec. 408. Point of order regarding emergencies.''.

SEC. 9. EVALUATION AND SUNSET OF TAX EXPENDITURES.

    (a) Legislation for Sunsetting Tax Expenditures.--The President 
shall submit legislation for the periodic review, reauthorization, and 
sunset of tax expenditures with his fiscal year 2008 budget.
    (b) Budget Contents and Submission to Congress.--Section 1105(a) of 
title 31, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the 
following paragraph:
            ``(35) beginning with fiscal year 2009, a Government 
        performance plan for measuring the overall effectiveness of tax 
        expenditures, including a schedule for periodically assessing 
        the effects of specific tax expenditures in achieving 
        performance goals.''.
    (c) Pilot Projects.--Section 1118(c) of title 31, United States 
Code, is amended by--
            (1) striking ``and'' after the semicolon in paragraph (2);
            (2) redesignating paragraph (3) as paragraph (4); and
            (3) adding after paragraph (2) the following:
            ``(3) describe the framework to be utilized by the Director 
        of the Office of Management and Budget, after consultation with 
        the Secretary of the Treasury, the Comptroller General of the 
        United States, and the Joint Committee on Taxation, for 
        undertaking periodic analyses of the effects of tax 
        expenditures in achieving performance goals and the 
        relationship between tax expenditures and spending programs; 
        and''.
    (d) Congressional Budget Act.--Title IV of the Congressional Budget 
Act of 1974 is amended by adding at the end thereof the following:

                           ``tax expenditures

    ``Sec. 409. It shall not be in order in the House of 
Representatives or the Senate to consider any bill, joint resolution, 
amendment, motion, or conference report that contains a tax expenditure 
unless the bill, joint resolution, amendment, motion, or conference 
report provides that the tax expenditure will terminate not later than 
10 years after the date of enactment of the tax expenditure.''.

SEC. 10. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    The provisions of this Act shall apply to measures passed by the 
Congress beginning with the date of the enactment of this Act and 
ending on September 30, 2012.
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