[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3475 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

111th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3475

  To provide tighter control over and additional public disclosure of 
                               earmarks.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             June 10, 2010

  Mr. Bennet introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
         referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To provide tighter control over and additional public disclosure of 
                               earmarks.

    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 ``Clean Up Earmarks Act of 2010'' or 
the ``CUE Act of 2010''.

SEC. 2. GAO AUDIT OF SENATE EARMARKS.

    (a) In General.--Not later than March 31 of each year, the 
Comptroller General shall submit an audit to Congress of 5 percent of 
Senate earmarks for the current fiscal year chosen at random.
    (b) Details.--The audit required by subsection (a) shall include--
            (1) an adequate amount of earmarks of small and large 
        programs;
            (2) 50 percent of earmarks that have been requested by at 
        least one Democratic Senator and 50 percent requested by at 
        least one Republican Senator; and
            (3) 50 percent of earmarks requested by members of the 
        Senate Committee on Appropriations and 50 percent requested by 
        Senators not on the Senate Committee on Appropriations.

SEC. 3. STRENGTHENING POINT OF ORDER AGAINST AIRDROPPED ITEMS IN 
              CONFERENCE REPORTS.

    Subparagraphs (c) and (d) of paragraph 8 of rule XLIV of the 
Standing rules of the Senate are amended by striking ``three-fifths'' 
and inserting ``two-thirds''.

SEC. 4. IMPROVING EARMARKS WEB SITE.

    The Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House of 
Representatives shall take such steps as are necessary to improve the 
Web site earmarks.gov to--
            (1) make earmarks more easily searchable by the requesting 
        member of Congress and by any federally registered lobbyist who 
        requested such earmark; and
            (2) ensure that the Web site is user friendly and does not 
        include extraneous information.

SEC. 5. HEARINGS ON EARMARKS.

    It is the sense of the Senate that--
            (1) the subcommittees of the Committee on Appropriations 
        should hold hearings on earmark requests in excess of 
        $1,000,000, during which Members who request said earmarks 
        should be invited to testify; and
            (2) the subcommittees of the Committee on Appropriations 
        shall hold hearings on earmark requests in excess of 
        $5,000,000, during which Members who request said earmarks 
        shall be invited to testify.

SEC. 6. INCREASED EARMARK TRANSPARENCY AND PROHIBITING EARMARKS TO 
              PRIVATE FOR-PROFIT ENTITIES.

    Rule XLIV of the Standing Rules of the Senate is amended by adding 
at the end thereof the following:
    ``13.(a) All congressionally directed spending items shall be 
included in the text of an appropriations or authorization bill and any 
conference report related to that appropriations or authorization bill.
    ``(b) Not later than 48 hours after the request, each request for a 
congressionally directed spending item for an appropriations or 
authorization bill made by a Senator shall be posted on the Senator's 
Web site. The posting of the request for a congressionally directed 
spending item shall include the name and location of the specifically 
intended recipient, the purpose of the congressionally directed 
spending item, the name of any federally registered lobbyist who 
materially participated in requesting that the earmark submission be 
made by that Senator, and the dollar amount requested. If there is no 
specifically intended recipient, the posting shall include the intended 
location of the activity, the purpose of the congressionally directed 
spending item, and the dollar amount requested.
    ``(c) It shall not be in order to consider an appropriations or 
authorization bill, amendment, or conference report if it contains a 
congressionally directed spending item for a private for-profit 
entity.''.

SEC. 7. DISCLOSURE BY NON-PROFITS OF PRIVATE FOR-PROFIT EARMARK 
              BENEFICIARIES.

    Each Senator shall--
            (1) require any eligible entity that requests an earmark 
        submission from that Senator to include a written disclosure in 
        that earmark request of the identity of any for profit, private 
        company that might directly benefit financially from the award 
        of the earmark; and
            (2) submit the identity of the beneficiary disclosed under 
        paragraph (1) in writing to the Senate Committee on 
        Appropriations with any corresponding earmarks request made by 
        the Senator and include the beneficiary disclosure in the 
        disclosure of earmarks required to be posted on the Web site of 
        the Senator by paragraph 13 of rule XLIV of the Standing Rules 
        of the Senate.

SEC. 8. AMENDMENT TO THE LOBBYING DISCLOSURE ACT OF 1995 REQUIRING 
              REPORTING INFORMATION ON THE EMPLOYER OF A LOBBYIST.

    Section 5(b) of the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 
1604(b)) is amended--
            (1) in paragraph (4), by striking the ``and'' after the 
        semicolon;
            (2) in paragraph (5), by striking the period and inserting 
        ``; and''; and
            (3) by inserting at the end the following:
            ``(6) for each client, the amount of congressional earmarks 
        requested from Congress on behalf of the client and a detailed 
        accounting of each such earmark.''.
                                 <all>