[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 687 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 687

 Amending the Rules of the House of Representatives to provide greater 
                   transparency on earmark requests.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 28, 2009

Mr. Alexander 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 provide greater 
                   transparency on earmark requests.

    Resolved, That (a) rule XXIII of the Rules of the House of 
Representatives is amended by redesignating clause 18 as clause 19 and 
by inserting after clause 17 the following:
    ``18. A Member, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner who requests a 
congressional earmark, a limited tax benefit, or a limited tariff 
benefit shall, within 24 hours after making such request--
            ``(a) post on his or her public website for the remainder 
        of the Congress financial certification letters that contain 
        the following--
                    ``(1) the name and address of the intended 
                recipient;
                    ``(2) the requested amount (only in the case of 
                congressional earmarks);
                    ``(3) an explanation of the request, including the 
                purpose, and why it is a valuable use of taxpayer 
                funds;
                    ``(4) state if the recipient of the requested funds 
                is a public, private, nonprofit, or for profit entity; 
                and
                    ``(5) a statement that neither the requesting 
                member nor their spouse has any financial interest 
                related to the funding request;
            ``(b) display on the homepage of such website a hypertext 
        link that contains the words `Appropriations Requests', 
        `Limited Tax Benefits', or `Limited Tariff Benefits' and that 
        directs to such webpage address, and maintain that link for at 
        least 90 calendar days after the last such request is made 
        during the Congress; and
            ``(c) electronically submit to the committee of subject-
        matter jurisdiction the webpage address where such information 
        is posted.''.
    (b) The last sentence of clause 16 of rule XXIII of the Rules of 
the House of Representatives is amended by striking ``and clause 17'' 
and inserting ``, clause 17, and clause 18''.
    Sec. 2.  Rule XI of the Rules of the House of Representatives is 
amended by adding at the end the following new clause:
``Earmark disclosure websites
    ``(s)(1) Any committee that accepts any request of a Member, 
Delegate, or Resident Commissioner for a congressional earmark, a 
limited tax benefit, or a limited tariff benefit shall maintain a 
public website with an earmark disclosure webpage that contains the 
list of earmarks included in the Committee Report of the bill and is in 
a downloadable format that is searchable.
    ``(2) The earmark disclosure webpage of a committee shall post the 
information required under subparagraphs (1) within two days of 
introduction, and shall maintain that information on that webpage for 
the remainder of the Congress.
    ``(3) For purposes of this paragraph, the terms `congressional 
earmark', `limited tax benefit', and `limited tariff benefit' shall 
have the meaning given them in clause 9 of rule XXI.''.
    Sec. 3.  Clause 9 of rule XXI of the Rules of the House of 
Representatives is amended by redesignating paragraphs (e), (f), and 
(g) as paragraphs (f), (g), and (h), respectively, and by inserting 
after paragraph (d) the following:
    ``(e) It shall not be in order to consider any bill or joint 
resolution, or an amendment thereto or conference report thereon, that 
carries a congressional earmark, limited tax benefit, or limited tariff 
benefit for which a Member, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner failed 
to comply with any applicable requirement of clause 18 of rule 
XXIII.''.
    Sec. 4.  The amendments made by this resolution shall apply to 
requests for congressional earmarks, limited tax benefits, and limited 
tariff benefits made after the date this resolution is agreed to.
                                 <all>