II 112th CONGRESS 1st Session S. 282 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES February 3, 2011 Mr. Coburn (for himself and Mr. Begich) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Appropriations A BILL To rescind unused earmarks.

1.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Orphan Earmarks Act.

2.

Unused earmarks

(a)

Definition

In this section, the term earmark means the following: (1)A congressionally directed spending item, as defined in Rule XLIV of the Standing Rules of the Senate. (2)A congressional earmark, as defined for purposes of Rule XXI of the Rules of the House of Representatives. (b)

Rescission

Any earmark of funds provided for any Federal agency with more than 90 percent of the appropriated amount remaining available for obligation at the end of the 9th fiscal year following the fiscal year in which the earmark was made available is rescinded effective at the end of that 9th fiscal year, except that the agency head may delay any such rescission if the agency head determines that an additional obligation of the earmark is likely to occur during the following 12-month period. (c)

Identification and report

(1)

Agency identification

Each Federal agency shall identify and report every project that is an earmark with an unobligated balance at the end of each fiscal year to the Director of OMB. (2)

Annual report

The Director of OMB shall submit to Congress and publically post on the Web site of OMB an annual report that includes— (A)a listing and accounting for earmarks with unobligated balances summarized by agency including the amount of the original earmark, amount of the unobligated balance, and the year when the funding expires, if applicable; (B)the number of rescissions resulting from this section and the annual savings resulting from this section for the previous fiscal year; and (C)a listing and accounting for earmarks provided for Federal agencies scheduled to be rescinded at the end of the current fiscal year.