II

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1466

To amend chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, to provide for

congressional review of rules establishing or increasing taxes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

JULY 29, 1999

Mr. THOMPSON (for himself and Mr. ASHCROFT) introduced the following bill;

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Governmental Affairs

A BILL

To amend chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, to provide

for congressional review of rules establishing or increasing taxes.

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 ‘‘Taxpayer’s Defense

5 Act’’.

6 SEC. 2. MANDATORY CONGRESSIONAL REVIEW.

7 Chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, is amended

8 by inserting after section 808 the following:
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1 ‘‘SUBCHAPTER II—MANDATORY REVIEW OF

2 CERTAIN RULES

3 ‘‘§ 815. Rules subject to mandatory congressional re4 view

5 ‘‘(a) In this section, the term ‘tax’ means a non6 penal, mandatory payment of money or its equivalent to

7 the extent such payment does not compensate the Federal

8 Government or other payee for a specific benefit conferred

9 directly on the payer.

10 ‘‘(b) A rule that establishes or increases a tax, how11 ever denominated, shall not take effect before the date of

12 the enactment of a bill described in section 816 and is

13 not subject to review under subchapter I. This section does

14 not apply to a rule promulgated under the Internal Rev15 enue Code of 1986.

16 ‘‘§ 816. Agency submission

17 ‘‘Whenever an agency promulgates a rule subject to

18 section 815, the agency shall submit to each House of

19 Congress a report containing the text of only the part of

20 the rule that causes the rule to be subject to section 815

21 and an explanation of that part. An agency shall submit

22 such a report separately for each such rule the agency pro23 mulgates. The explanation shall consist of the concise gen24 eral statement of the rule’s basis and purpose required
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1 under section 553 and such explanatory documents as are

2 mandated by other statutory requirements.

3 ‘‘§ 817. Approval bill

4 ‘‘(a)(1) Not later than 3 legislative days after the

5 date on which an agency submits a report under section

6 816, the Majority Leader of each House of Congress shall

7 introduce (by request) a bill the matter after the enacting

8 clause of which is as follows: ‘The following agency rule

9 may take effect:’. The text submitted under section 816

10 shall be set forth after the colon. If such a bill is not intro11 duced in a House of Congress as provided in the first sen12 tence of this subsection, any Member of that House may

13 introduce such a bill not later than 7 legislative days after

14 the period for introduction by the Majority Leader.

15 ‘‘(2) A bill introduced under paragraph (1) shall be

16 referred to the Committees in each House of Congress

17 with jurisdiction over the subject matter of the rule in18 volved.

19 ‘‘(b)(1)(A) Any committee of the House of Represent20 atives to which a bill is referred shall report the bill with21 out amendment, and with or without recommendation, not

22 later than the 30th calendar day of session after the date

23 of its introduction. If any committee fails to report the

24 bill within that period, it is in order to move that the

25 House discharge the committee from further consideration
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1 of the bill. A motion to discharge may be made only by

2 a Member favoring the bill (but only at a time designated

3 by the Speaker on the legislative day after the calendar

4 day on which the Member offering the motion announces

5 to the House that Member’s intention to do so and the

6 form of the motion). The motion is highly privileged. De7 bate thereon shall be limited to not more than 1 hour,

8 the time to be divided in the House equally between the

9 proponent and an opponent. The previous question shall

10 be considered as ordered on the motion to its adoption

11 without intervening motion. A motion to reconsider the

12 vote by which the motion is agreed to or disagreed to shall

13 not be in order.

14 ‘‘(B) After a bill is reported or a committee has been

15 discharged from further consideration, it is in order to

16 move that the House resolve into the Committee of the

17 Whole House on the State of the Union for consideration

18 of the bill. If reported and the report has been available

19 for at least 1 calendar day, all points of order against the

20 bill and against consideration of the bill are waived. If dis21 charged, all points of order against the bill and against

22 consideration of the bill are waived. The motion is highly

23 privileged. A motion to reconsider the vote by which the

24 motion is agreed to or disagreed to shall not be in order.

25 During consideration of the bill in the Committee of the
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1 Whole, the first reading of the bill shall be dispensed with.

2 General debate shall proceed, shall be confined to the bill,

3 and shall not exceed 1 hour equally divided and controlled

4 by a proponent and an opponent of the bill. After general

5 debate, the bill shall be considered as read for amendment

6 under the 5-minute rule. At the conclusion of the consider7 ation of the bill, the Committee shall rise and report the

8 bill to the House without intervening motion. The previous

9 question shall be considered as ordered on the bill to final

10 passage without intervening motion. A motion to recon11 sider the vote on passage of the bill shall not be in order.

12 ‘‘(C) Appeals from decisions of the Chair regarding

13 application of the rules of the House of Representatives

14 to the procedure relating to a bill shall be decided without

15 debate.

16 ‘‘(2)(A) Any bill introduced in the Senate shall be re17 ferred to the appropriate committee or committees. A com18 mittee to which a bill has been referred shall report the

19 bill without amendment not later than the 30th day of

20 session following the date of introduction of that bill. If

21 any committee fails to report the bill within that period,

22 that committee shall be automatically discharged from fur23 ther consideration of the bill and the bill shall be placed

24 on the calendar.
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1 ‘‘(B) When the Senate receives from the House of

2 Representatives a bill, such bill shall not be referred to

3 committee and shall be placed on the calendar.

4 ‘‘(C) A motion to proceed to consideration of a bill

5 under this subsection shall not be debatable. It shall not

6 be in order to move to reconsider the vote by which the

7 motion to proceed was adopted or rejected, although sub8 sequent motions to proceed may be made under this para9 graph.

10 ‘‘(D)(i) After no more than 10 hours of consideration

11 of a bill, the Senate shall proceed, without intervening ac12 tion or debate (except as permitted under subparagraph

13 (F)), to vote on the final disposition thereof to the exclu14 sion of all motions, except a motion to reconsider or to

15 table.

16 ‘‘(ii) A single motion to extend the time for consider17 ation under clause (i) for no more than an additional 5

18 hours is in order before the expiration of such time and

19 shall be decided without debate.

20 ‘‘(iii) The time for debate on the disapproval bill shall

21 be equally divided between the Majority Leader and the

22 Minority Leader or their designees.

23 ‘‘(E) A motion to recommit a bill shall not be in

24 order.
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1 ‘‘(F) If the Senate has read for the third time a bill

2 that originated in the Senate, then it shall be in order

3 at any time thereafter to move to proceed to the consider4 ation of a bill for the same special message received from

5 the House of Representatives and placed on the calendar

6 under subparagraph (B), strike all after the enacting

7 clause, substitute the text of the Senate bill, agree to the

8 Senate amendment, and vote on final disposition of the

9 House bill, all without any intervening action or debate.

10 ‘‘(G) Consideration in the Senate of all motions,

11 amendments, or appeals necessary to dispose of a message

12 from the House of Representatives on a bill shall be lim13 ited to not more than 4 hours. Debate on each motion

14 or amendment shall be limited to 30 minutes. Debate on

15 any appeal or point of order that is submitted in connec16 tion with the disposition of the House message shall be

17 limited to 20 minutes. Any time for debate shall be equally

18 divided and controlled by the proponent and the majority

19 manager, unless the majority manager is a proponent of

20 the motion, amendment, appeal, or point of order, in

21 which case the minority manager shall be in control of

22 the time in opposition.’’.
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1 SEC. 3. TECHNICAL AMENDMENTS.

2 (a) SUBCHAPTER HEADING.—Chapter 8 of title 5,

3 United States Code, is amended by inserting before sec4 tion 801 the following:

5 ‘‘SUBCHAPTER I—DISCRETIONARY

6 CONGRESSIONAL REVIEW’’.

7 (b) TABLE OF SECTIONS.—The table of sections for

8 chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, is amended by

9 inserting before the reference to section 801 the following:

‘‘SUBCHAPTER I—DISCRETIONARY CONGRESSIONAL REVIEW’’;

10 and by inserting after the reference to section 808 the fol11 lowing:

‘‘SUBCHAPTER II—MANDATORY REVIEW OF CERTAIN RULES

‘‘815. Rules subject to mandatory congressional review.

‘‘816. Agency submission.

‘‘817. Approval bill.’’.

12 (c) REFERENCE.—Section 804 of title 5, United

13 States Code, is amended by striking ‘‘this chapter’’ and

14 inserting ‘‘this subchapter’’.

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