[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 309 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 309

                         To prohibit earmarks.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            January 29, 2015

 Mr. Toomey (for himself, Mrs. McCaskill, Mr. Rubio, Mr. Portman, Mr. 
 Johnson, Mr. Flake, Ms. Ayotte, and Mr. Lee) introduced the following 
 bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Rules and 
                             Administration

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
                         To prohibit 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 ``Earmark Elimination Act of 2015''.

SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON EARMARKS.

    (a) Bills and Joint Resolutions, Amendments, Amendments Between the 
Houses, and Conference Reports.--
            (1) In general.--It shall not be in order in the Senate to 
        consider a bill or resolution introduced in the Senate or the 
        House of Representatives, amendment, amendment between the 
        Houses, or conference report that includes an earmark.
            (2) Procedure.--Upon a point of order being made by any 
        Senator pursuant to paragraph (1) against an earmark, and such 
        point of order being sustained, such earmark shall be deemed 
        stricken.
    (b) Conference Report and Amendment Between the Houses Procedure.--
When the Senate is considering a conference report on, or an amendment 
between the Houses, upon a point of order being made by any Senator 
pursuant to subsection (a), and such point of order being sustained, 
such material contained in such conference report shall be deemed 
stricken, and the Senate shall proceed to consider the question of 
whether the Senate shall recede from its amendment and concur with a 
further amendment, or concur in the House amendment with a further 
amendment, as the case may be, which further amendment shall consist of 
only that portion of the conference report or House amendment, as the 
case may be, not so stricken. Any such motion in the Senate shall be 
debatable under the same conditions as was the conference report. In 
any case in which such point of order is sustained against a conference 
report (or Senate amendment derived from such conference report by 
operation of this subsection), no further amendment shall be in order.
    (c) Waiver.--A point of order under subsection (a) may be waived 
only by an affirmative vote of two-thirds of the Senators, duly chosen 
and sworn.
    (d) Definitions.--
            (1) Earmark.--For the purpose of this section, the term 
        ``earmark'' means a provision or report language included 
        primarily at the request of a Senator or Member of the House of 
        Representatives as certified under paragraph 1(a)(1) of rule 
        XLIV of the Standing Rules of the Senate--
                    (A) 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;
                    (B) that--
                            (i) provides a Federal tax deduction, 
                        credit, exclusion, or preference to a 
                        particular beneficiary or limited group of 
                        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
                    (C) modifying the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the 
                United States in a manner that benefits 10 or fewer 
                entities.
            (2) Determination by the senate.--In the event the Chair is 
        unable to ascertain whether or not the offending provision 
        constitutes an earmark as defined in this subsection, the 
        question of whether the provision constitutes an earmark shall 
        be submitted to the Senate and be decided without debate by an 
        affirmative vote of two-thirds of the Senators, duly chosen and 
        sworn.
    (e) Application.--This section shall not apply to any authorization 
of appropriations to a Federal entity if such authorization is not 
specifically targeted to a State, locality or congressional district.
                                 <all>