II 

111TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 3335 

To require Congress to establish a unified and searchable database on a 

public website for congressional earmarks as called for by the President 

in his 2010 State of the Union Address to Congress. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MAY 11, 2010 

Mr. COBURN (for himself, Mr. MCCAIN, Mr. FEINGOLD, Mrs. GILLIBRAND, 

Mr. BENNET, Mr. ENSIGN, Mr. CORKER, and Mr. UDALL of Colorado) 

introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 

Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 

A BILL 

To require Congress to establish a unified and searchable 

database on a public website for congressional earmarks 

as called for by the President in his 2010 State of 

the Union Address to Congress. 

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 Trans5 parency Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

7 In this Act: 


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1 (1) CONGRESSIONALLY DIRECTED SPENDING

2 ITEM.—The term ‘‘congressionally directed spending 

3 item’’ shall have the same meaning as given the 

4 term in section 521 of the Honest Leadership and 

5 Open Government Act of 2007 (Public Law 110– 

6 81). 

7 (2) REQUEST.—The term ‘‘request’’ means a 

8 formal communication, most commonly in writing, 

9 from a Member of Congress to a committee of Con10 gress or a chairman or ranking member of such a 

11 committee requesting a congressionally directed 

12 spending item. 

13 (3) REQUESTOR.—The term ‘‘requestor’’ means 

14 the Member or Members of Congress that submits 

15 a request. 

16 (4) SEARCHABLE WEBSITE.—The term 

17 ‘‘searchable website’’ means a website that allows 

18 the public to— 

19 (A) search and aggregate congressionally 

20 directed spending items by any element re21 quired under section 3; 

22 (B) ascertain through a single search the 

23 total number and dollar value of congressionally 

24 directed spending items requested by an indi25 vidual Member of Congress; 


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1 (C) download data included in subpara2 graph (A) included in the outcome from 

3 searches; 

4 (D) programmatically search and access all 

5 data in a serialized machine readable format via 

6 a web-services application programming inter7 face; 

8 (E) access a public facing interface that 

9 can be queried across multiple fields from a sin10 gle search, or through an advanced search that 

11 allows users to query for information in specific 

12 fields; and 

13 (F) access the website address and link on 

14 the front page of the websites of the Secretary 

15 of the Senate and Clerk of the House of Rep16 resentatives. 

17 SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL EARMARK DATABASE. 

18 (a) WEBSITE.—Not later than 6 months after the 

19 date of enactment of this Act, the Clerk of the House of 

20 Representatives, in coordination with the Secretary of the 

21 Senate, shall ensure the existence of a single searchable 

22 website, available to the public at no cost to access, that 

23 includes for each request— 

24 (1) the fiscal year in which the congressionally 

25 directed spending item would be funded; 


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1 (2) the bill number on which request is made; 

2 (3) the bill section location; 

3 (4) the amount of initial request made by re4 questor; 

5 (5) the amount approved by the committee of 

6 jurisdiction; 

7 (6) the amount approved in final legislation (if 

8 approved); 

9 (7) the name of Federal department or agency 

10 through which the entity will receive the funding; 

11 (8) if the request was included in the Presi12 dent’s budget for the relevant fiscal year; 

13 (9) if the request is authorized in law and when 

14 any such authorization expires; 

15 (10) the name of the requestor or requestors; 

16 (11) the requestor State (for Members of the 

17 Senate) or State and District (for Members of the 

18 House of Representatives); 

19 (12) the name of any beneficiary designated to 

20 receive appropriations, including Federal agencies, 

21 municipalities, and States; 

22 (13) the type of organization (public, private 

23 non-profit, or private for-profit entity); 

24 (14) the address of each beneficiary identified 

25 in paragraph (12); 


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1 (15) the project name; 

2 (16) the project description; 

3 (17) the justification, as provided by the re4 questor or requestors, explaining how congressionally 

5 directed spending item would benefit taxpayers; 

6 (18) an indication of whether congressionally 

7 directed spending item related to request is a con8 tinuing project; 

9 (19) for each congressionally directed spending 

10 item identified as a continuing project under para11 graph (18), an indication of how long it has received 

12 appropriations; 

13 (20) the estimated completion date of the 

14 project funded by the congressionally directed spend15 ing item; 

16 (21) a description, if applicable, of any Federal 

17 or non-Federal sources of funding for the previous 

18 2 fiscal years, including the amount of a State or 

19 local matching requirement, for the congressionally 

20 directed spending item; 

21 (22) for any non-Federal sources of funding 

22 identified under paragraph (21), an identification of 

23 the sources and their percentage of the project’s 

24 total funding; 


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1 (23) a copy of all requests and supplemental 

2 documents submitted to a committee of Congress 

3 relevant to each request; and 

4 (24) the status of the congressionally directed 

5 spending item, including if it was only requested, or 

6 then inserted into a bill passed by either House, and 

7 also noted if it was included in final conference re8 port, including any changes in final dollar amount 

9 awarded for the item. 

10 (b) SCOPE OF DATA.—The website created under 

11 subsection (a) shall contain all requests made on or after 

12 the date of enactment of this Act consistent with the provi13 sion of this Act. 

14 (c) SEARCH REQUIREMENTS.—The website created 

15 under subsection (a) shall— 

16 (1) distinguish between requests that have been 

17 included in authorizing or appropriation legislation 

18 and those that were requested but not included in 

19 any legislation; 

20 (2) provide a permanent and unique identifica21 tion number for each request for a congressionally 

22 directed spending item; 

23 (3) provide that all search results return per24 manent weblinks; and 


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1 (4) include information from all relevant 

2 sources including bills, conference reports, amend3 ments, manager’s amendments, and committee re4 ports. 

5 (d) AVAILABILITY.—Requests shall be made available 

6 on the website created under subsection (a) not later than 

7 5 days after submission by a requestor to a committee of 

8 Congress. For items under paragraphs (2), (3), (5), and 

9 (6) of subsection (a), information shall be added to the 

10 website as soon as it becomes available. 

11 (e) CONFERENCE REPORTS.—The database shall be 

12 updated to include congressionally directed spending items 

13 included in any conference report. 

14 (f) COMMITTEES RESPONSIBLE.—The burden to pro15 vide information in a timely manner and in compliance 

16 with this Act to the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk 

17 of the House regarding requests shall be on the committee 

18 of Congress to which a request is made. 

Æ 


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