[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 975 Introduced in House (IH)]








109th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 975

  Amending the Rules of the House of Representatives to require that 
rescission bills always be considered under open rules every year, and 
                          for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 28, 2006

   Mr. King of Iowa (for himself, Mr. Hensarling, Mr. Gutknecht, Mr. 
 Feeney, Mr. McHenry, Mr. Chabot, Mr. Shadegg, Mr. Flake, Mrs. Jo Ann 
Davis of Virginia, Mr. Bartlett of Maryland, Ms. Foxx, Mrs. Cubin, Mr. 
     Miller of Florida, Mrs. Musgrave, Mrs. Myrick, Mr. Pitts, Mr. 
    Westmoreland, Mr. Franks of Arizona, Mr. Burton of Indiana, Mr. 
     Tancredo, Mrs. Blackburn, Mr. Paul, Mr. Cole of Oklahoma, Mr. 
   Rohrabacher, Mr. Garrett of New Jersey, Mr. Akin, Mr. Pearce, Mr. 
 Terry, and Mr. Duncan) submitted the following resolution; which was 
                   referred to the Committee on Rules

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
  Amending the Rules of the House of Representatives to require that 
rescission bills always be considered under open rules every year, and 
                          for other purposes.

Whereas Federal spending is out of control and the Congressional Budget Office 
        (CBO) projects that if current laws and policies remained the same, the 
        Federal Government will run a deficit of $337 billion in 2006;
Whereas a rescissions bill, which would cut Federal spending, should be brought 
        to the House floor at the beginning of every fiscal quarter to give 
        Congress the opportunity to cut and cancel unnecessary, wasteful, and 
        bloated government spending to eliminate the deficit;
Whereas any Federal appropriations that have not yet been spent would be on the 
        table for cuts;
Whereas the House of Representatives would consider this spending slashing bill 
        under an open rule procedure that allows any Member of Congress to offer 
        an amendment to cut Federal spending and demand a recorded vote to hold 
        Congress accountable;
Whereas in this spending cutting process every single spending item would be up 
        for reconsideration and no Member of Congress could make excuses for 
        failing to cut spending because the process would provide a record of 
        their actions;
Whereas the taxpayer money saved through this spending cutting process will be 
        returned to the general fund and cannot be used for new spending;
Whereas the process of cutting spending should be open to the public, by posting 
        this spending cutting bill and its amendments on the Internet, so that 
        Americans can exercise their right to contact their Members of Congress 
        and make their views known; and
Whereas this rescissions spending cutting process will discipline Federal 
        spending and save taxpayer money: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That (a) this resolution may be cited as the ``Cut the 
Unnecessary Tab Resolution'' or the ``CUT Resolution''.
    (b) Clause 6(c) of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of 
Representatives is amended by striking the period and inserting ``; 
or'' at the end of subparagraph (2) and by adding at the end the 
following new subparagraph:
    ``(3) a rule or order that would limit any amendment that would 
otherwise be in order to a rescission bill.''.
    (c) Clause 4(b) of rule X of the Rules of the House of 
Representatives is amended by inserting ``(1)'' after ``(b)'', by 
redesignating subparagraphs (1) through (6) as subdivisions (A) through 
(F), respectively, and by adding at the end the following:
    ``(2)(A) Whenever a rescission bill passes the House, the Committee 
on the Budget shall immediately reduce the applicable allocations under 
section 302(a) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 by the total 
amount of reductions in budget authority and in outlays resulting from 
such rescission bill.
    ``(B) As used in this subparagraph, the term `rescission bill' 
means a bill or joint resolution which only rescinds, in whole or in 
part, budget authority and which includes only titles corresponding to 
the most recently enacted appropriation bills that continue to include 
unobligated balances.''.
    (d) Rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives is 
amended by adding at the end the following new clause:
    ``8. (a) By February 1, May 1, July 30, and November 11 of each 
session, the majority leader shall introduce a rescission bill. If such 
bill is not introduced by that date, then whenever a rescission bill is 
introduced during a session on or after that date, a motion to 
discharge the committee from its consideration shall be privileged 
after the 10-legislative day period beginning on that date for the 
first 5 such bills.
    ``(b) It shall not be in order to offer any amendment to a 
rescission bill except an amendment that increases the amount of budget 
authority that such bill rescinds.
    ``(c) As used in this clause and in clause 6, the term `rescission 
bill' has the meaning given such term in clause 4(b)(2)(B) of rule 
X.''.
    (e) Rule XXI of the Rules of the House of Representatives (as 
amended by subsection (d)) is further amended by adding at the end the 
following new clause:
    ``8. (a) It shall not be in order to consider any rescission bill, 
or conference report thereon or amendment thereto, unless--
            ``(1) in the case of such bill or conference report 
        thereon, it is made available to Members and the general public 
        on the Internet for at least 48 hours before its consideration; 
        or
            ``(2)(A) in the case of an amendment to such rescission 
        bill made in order by a rule, it is made available to Members 
        and the general public on the Internet within one hour after 
        the rule is filed; or
            ``(B) in the case of an amendment under an open rule, it is 
        made available to Members and the general public on the 
        Internet immediately after being offered; in a format that is 
        searchable and sortable.
    ``(b) No amendment to an amendment to a rescission bill shall be in 
order unless germane to the amendment to which it is offered.''.
                                 <all>