I 

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. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Earmark Elimination 

5 Act of 2011’’. 

6 SEC. 2. PROHIBITING CONSIDERATION OF LEGISLATION 

7 CONTAINING EARMARKS. 

8 (a) PROHIBITION.— 

9 (1) IN GENERAL.—It shall not be in order in 

10 the House of Representatives to consider any bill, 


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1 joint resolution, amendment, or conference report if 

2 the bill, joint resolution, amendment, or conference 

3 report, or any accompanying report or joint explana4 tory statement of managers, includes a congressional 

5 earmark, limited tax benefit, or limited tariff benefit. 

6 (2) PROCEDURE.—If a point of order is raised 

7 under paragraph (1) with respect to a congressional 

8 earmark, limited tax benefit, or limited tariff benefit 

9 and the point of order is sustained, the congressional 

10 earmark, limited tax benefit, or limited tariff benefit 

11 shall be deemed to be stricken from the measure in12 volved. 

13 (3) SPECIAL PROCEDURE FOR CONFERENCE

14 REPORT AND AMENDMENTS BETWEEN THE

15 HOUSES.— 

16 (A) IN GENERAL.—If a point of order is 

17 raised and sustained under paragraph (1) with 

18 respect to a conference report or a motion that 

19 the House recede from its disagreement to a 

20 Senate amendment and concur therein, with or 

21 without amendment, then after disposition of all 

22 such points of order the conference report or 

23 motion, as the case may be, shall be considered 

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1 agreement shall be disposed of under subpara2 graph (B) or (C), as the case may be. 

3 (B) CONFERENCE REPORTS.—After the 

4 House has sustained one or more points of 

5 order under paragraph (1) with respect to a 

6 conference report— 

7 (i) if the conference report accom8 panied a House measure amended by the 

9 Senate, the pending question shall be 

10 whether the House shall recede and concur 

11 in the Senate amendment with an amend12 ment consisting of so much of the con13 ference report as was not rejected; and 

14 (ii) if the conference report accom15 panied a Senate measure amended by the 

16 House, the pending question shall be 

17 whether the House shall insist further on 

18 the House amendment. 

19 (C) MOTIONS.—After the House has sus20 tained one or more points of order under para21 graph (1) with respect to a motion that the 

22 House recede and concur in a Senate amend23 ment, with or without amendment, the following 

24 motions shall be privileged and shall have prece25 dence in the order stated: 


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1 (i) A motion that the House recede 

2 and concur in the Senate amendment with 

3 an amendment in writing then available on 

4 the floor. 

5 (ii) A motion that the House insist on 

6 its disagreement to the Senate amendment 

7 and request a further conference with the 

8 Senate. 

9 (iii) A motion that the House insist 

10 on its disagreement to the Senate amend11 ment. 

12 (b) DETERMINATION BY HOUSE.—If a point of order 

13 is raised under this section and the Chair is unable to as14 certain whether a provision constitutes a congressional 

15 earmark, limited tax benefit, or limited tariff benefit, the 

16 Chair shall put the question to the House and the question 

17 shall be decided without debate or intervening motion. 

18 (c) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Rule XXI of the 

19 Rules of the House of Representatives is amended by 

20 striking clause 9. 

21 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 

22 In this Act— 

23 (1) the term ‘‘congressional earmark’’ means a 

24 provision or report language included primarily at 

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1 missioner, or Senator providing, authorizing or rec2 ommending a specific amount of discretionary budg3 et authority, credit authority, or other spending au4 thority for a contract, loan, loan guarantee, grant, 

5 loan authority, or other expenditure with or to an 

6 entity, or targeted to a specific State, locality or 

7 Congressional district, other than through a statu8 tory or administrative formula-driven or competitive 

9 award process; 

10 (2) the term ‘‘limited tax benefit’’ means— 

11 (A) any revenue-losing provision that— 

12 (i) provides a Federal tax deduction, 

13 credit, exclusion, or preference to 10 or 

14 fewer beneficiaries under the Internal Rev15 enue Code of 1986, and 

16 (ii) contains eligibility criteria that are 

17 not uniform in application with respect to 

18 potential beneficiaries of such provision; or 

19 (B) any Federal tax provision which pro20 vides one beneficiary temporary or permanent 

21 transition relief from a change to the Internal 

22 Revenue Code of 1986; and 

23 (3) the term ‘‘limited tariff benefit’’ means a 

24 provision modifying the Harmonized Tariff Schedule 


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1 of the United States in a manner that benefits 10 

2 or fewer entities. 

Æ 


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