[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1221 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 1221

Amending the Rules of the House of Representatives to increase openness 
and transparency in the annual appropriations process as it relates to 
                               earmarks.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 25, 2010

Mr. Chaffetz submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
 the Committee on Rules, and in addition to the Committee on Standards 
of Official Conduct, 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

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
Amending the Rules of the House of Representatives to increase openness 
and transparency in the annual appropriations process as it relates to 
                               earmarks.

    Resolved, That (a) clause 9 of rule XXI of the Rules of the House 
of Representatives is amended by adding at the end the following new 
paragraph:
    ``(h) It shall not be in order to consider any bill, joint 
resolution, amendment, or conference report if that measure or any 
accompanying report or joint explanatory statement of managers, as 
applicable, contains a congressional earmark for an organization other 
than an organization which is exempt from the tax imposed under chapter 
1 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 or a governmental entity.''.
    (b)(1) Paragraph (b) of clause 9 of rule XXI of the Rules of the 
House of Representatives is amended to read as follows:
    ``(b) It shall not be in order to consider any conference report if 
it or the accompanying joint explanatory statement prepared by the 
managers on the part of the House and the managers on the part of the 
Senate contains any congressional earmark, limited tax benefit, or 
limited tariff benefit that was not committed to the conference 
committee by either House or in a report of a committee of either House 
on such bill or joint resolution or on a companion measure.''.
    (2) The second sentence of paragraph (c) of clause 9 of rule XXI of 
the Rules of the House of Representatives is amended by striking ``or 
paragraph (b)''.
    (c)(1) Clause 17(a) of rule XXIII of the Rules of the House of 
Representatives is amended by redesignating subparagraphs (4) and (5) 
as subparagraphs (5) and (6), respectively, and by inserting after 
subparagraph (3) the following new subparagraph:
            ``(4) in the case of a congressional earmark, the Federal 
        nexus or specific power granted to Congress in the Constitution 
        to enact such earmark and the previous authorization by law 
        that supports such earmark;''.
    (2) Clause 9 of rule XXI of the Rules of the House of 
Representatives is further amended by adding at the end the following 
new paragraph:
    ``(i) It shall not be in order to consider any bill, joint 
resolution, amendment, or conference report unless any accompanying 
report or joint explanatory statement prepared by the managers on the 
part of the House and the managers on the part of the Senate, as 
applicable, containing any congressional earmark sets forth for each 
congressional earmark, the Federal nexus or specific power granted to 
Congress in the Constitution to enact such earmark and the previous 
authorization by law that supports such earmark.''.
    (d) Clause 9 of rule XXI of the Rules of the House of 
Representatives is further amended by adding at the end the following 
new paragraph:
    ``(j) It shall not be in order to consider any general 
appropriation bill or any other bill or joint resolution making or 
continuing appropriations, or amendment thereto or conference report 
thereon, if it includes any congressional earmark requested by any 
member of the Committee on Appropriations or inserted at the behest of 
the chair of that committee or of any subcommittee thereof.''.
    (e) Clause 17 of rule XXIII of the Rules of the House of 
Representatives is amended by adding at the end the following new 
paragraph:
    ``(c) Each Member, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner shall 
maintain an official website and include on it a comprehensive, 
sortable, and searchable database comprised of all congressional 
earmark requests for the current fiscal year and for the budget year, 
including for each such request the name and address of any recipient, 
the purpose of the earmark, the Federal nexus or specific power granted 
to Congress in the Constitution to enact the earmark, the previous 
authorization by law that supports the earmark, and the amount 
requested. These shall be posted when submitted to the applicable 
committee.''.
                                 <all>