[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3707 Introduced in House (IH)]

112th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3707

 To prohibit the consideration in the House of Representatives of any 
                   legislation containing an earmark.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           December 16, 2011

 Mr. Flake (for himself and Mr. Cooper) introduced the following bill; 
              which was referred to the Committee on Rules

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To prohibit the consideration in the House of Representatives of any 
                   legislation containing an earmark.

    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 ``Earmark Elimination Act of 2011''.

SEC. 2. PROHIBITING CONSIDERATION OF LEGISLATION CONTAINING EARMARKS.

    (a) Prohibition.--
            (1) In general.--It shall not be in order in the House of 
        Representatives to consider any bill, joint resolution, 
        amendment, or conference report if the bill, joint resolution, 
        amendment, or conference report, or any accompanying report or 
        joint explanatory statement of managers, includes a 
        congressional earmark, limited tax benefit, or limited tariff 
        benefit.
            (2) Procedure.--If a point of order is raised under 
        paragraph (1) with respect to a congressional earmark, limited 
        tax benefit, or limited tariff benefit and the point of order 
        is sustained, the congressional earmark, limited tax benefit, 
        or limited tariff benefit shall be deemed to be stricken from 
        the measure involved.
            (3) Special procedure for conference report and amendments 
        between the houses.--
                    (A) In general.--If a point of order is raised and 
                sustained under paragraph (1) with respect to a 
                conference report or a motion that the House recede 
                from its disagreement to a Senate amendment and concur 
                therein, with or without amendment, then after 
                disposition of all such points of order the conference 
                report or motion, as the case may be, shall be 
                considered as rejected and the matter remaining in 
                disagreement shall be disposed of under subparagraph 
                (B) or (C), as the case may be.
                    (B) Conference reports.--After the House has 
                sustained one or more points of order under paragraph 
                (1) with respect to a conference report--
                            (i) if the conference report accompanied a 
                        House measure amended by the Senate, the 
                        pending question shall be whether the House 
                        shall recede and concur in the Senate amendment 
                        with an amendment consisting of so much of the 
                        conference report as was not rejected; and
                            (ii) if the conference report accompanied a 
                        Senate measure amended by the House, the 
                        pending question shall be whether the House 
                        shall insist further on the House amendment.
                    (C) Motions.--After the House has sustained one or 
                more points of order under paragraph (1) with respect 
                to a motion that the House recede and concur in a 
                Senate amendment, with or without amendment, the 
                following motions shall be privileged and shall have 
                precedence in the order stated:
                            (i) A motion that the House recede and 
                        concur in the Senate amendment with an 
                        amendment in writing then available on the 
                        floor.
                            (ii) A motion that the House insist on its 
                        disagreement to the Senate amendment and 
                        request a further conference with the Senate.
                            (iii) A motion that the House insist on its 
                        disagreement to the Senate amendment.
    (b) Determination by House.--If a point of order is raised under 
this section and the Chair is unable to ascertain whether a provision 
constitutes a congressional earmark, limited tax benefit, or limited 
tariff benefit, the Chair shall put the question to the House and the 
question shall be decided without debate or intervening motion.
    (c) Conforming Amendment.--Rule XXI of the Rules of the House of 
Representatives is amended by striking clause 9.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act--
            (1) the term ``congressional earmark'' means a provision or 
        report language included primarily at the request of a Member, 
        Delegate, Resident Commissioner, or Senator providing, 
        authorizing or recommending a specific amount of discretionary 
        budget authority, credit authority, or other spending authority 
        for a contract, loan, loan guarantee, grant, loan authority, or 
        other expenditure with or to an entity, or targeted to a 
        specific State, locality or Congressional district, other than 
        through a statutory or administrative formula-driven or 
        competitive award process;
            (2) the term ``limited tax benefit'' means--
                    (A) any revenue-losing provision that--
                            (i) provides a Federal tax deduction, 
                        credit, exclusion, or preference to 10 or fewer 
                        beneficiaries under the Internal Revenue Code 
                        of 1986, and
                            (ii) contains eligibility criteria that are 
                        not uniform in application with respect to 
                        potential beneficiaries of such provision; or
                    (B) any Federal tax provision which provides one 
                beneficiary temporary or permanent transition relief 
                from a change to the Internal Revenue Code of 1986; and
            (3) the term ``limited tariff benefit'' means a provision 
        modifying the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States 
        in a manner that benefits 10 or fewer entities.
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