I 

112TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 3806 

To end the practice of including more than one subject in a single bill 

by requiring that each bill enacted by Congress be limited to only one 

subject, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 23, 2012 

Mr. MARINO introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To end the practice of including more than one subject 

in a single bill by requiring that each bill enacted by 

Congress be limited to only one subject, and for other 

purposes. 

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 ‘‘One Subject at a Time 

5 Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. ONE SUBJECT AT A TIME. 

7 (a) ONE SUBJECT.—Each bill or joint resolution 

8 shall embrace no more than one subject. 


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1 (b) SUBJECT IN TITLE.—The subject of a bill or joint 

2 resolution shall be clearly and descriptively expressed in 

3 the title. 

4 (c) APPROPRIATION BILLS.—An appropriations bill 

5 shall not contain any general legislation or change of exist6 ing law provision, the subject of which is not germane to 

7 the subject matter of each such appropriations bill; pro8 vided, however, that this section shall not be construed 

9 to prohibit any provision imposing limitations upon the ex10 penditure of funds so appropriated. 

11 SEC. 3. ENFORCEMENT. 

12 (a) MULTIPLE SUBJECTS IN TITLE.—If the title of 

13 an Act or joint resolution addresses two or more unrelated 

14 subjects, then the entire Act or joint resolution is void. 

15 (b) PROVISIONS NOT EXPRESSED IN TITLE.—If the 

16 title of an Act or joint resolution addresses a single sub17 ject, but the Act contains one or more provisions con18 cerning a subject that is not clearly and descriptively ex19 pressed in its title, then only such provision or provisions 

20 concerning the subject not clearly and descriptively ex21 pressed in the title shall be void. 

22 (c) APPROPRIATION PROVISIONS OUTSIDE SUB23 COMMITTEE JURISDICTION.—If an Act appropriating 

24 funds contains a provision outside of the jurisdiction of 

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1 priations of the House and of the Senate, and therefore 

2 outside the subject of the bill, then such provision shall 

3 be void. 

4 (d) PROVISIONS OF APPROPRIATION BILLS NOT

5 GERMANE TO SUBJECT MATTER.—If an Act appro6 priating funds contains general legislation or change of ex7 isting law provision not germane to the subject matter of 

8 such bill, then each and every such provision shall be void. 

9 (e) COMMENCEMENT OF AN ACTION.—Any person 

10 aggrieved by the enforcement of, or attempt or threat of 

11 enforcement of, an Act passed without having complied 

12 with section 2 or this section, or any Member of Congress 

13 aggrieved by the failure of the House of Congress which 

14 that individual is a member to comply with any require15 ment of those sections, shall, regardless of the amount in 

16 controversy, have a cause of action under sections 2201 

17 and 2202 of title 28, United States Code, against the 

18 United States to seek appropriate relief, including an in19 junction against the enforcement of any law, the passage 

20 of which did not conform to section 2 or this section. 

21 (f) STATE OF REVIEW.—In any judicial action 

22 brought pursuant to subsection (e), the standard of review 

23 shall be de novo. 

Æ 


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