IV 
111TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. RES. 1221 
Amending the Rules of the House of Representatives to increase openness 
and transparency in the annual appropriations process as it relates 
to earmarks. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 25, 2010 
Mr. CHAFFETZ submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
Committee on Rules, and in addition to the Committee on Standards of 
Official Conduct, for a period to be subsequently determined by the 
Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within 
the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
RESOLUTION 
Amending the Rules of the House of Representatives to 
increase openness and transparency in the annual appro-
priations process as it relates to earmarks. 
Resolved, That (a) clause 9 of rule XXI of the Rules 
of the House of Representatives is amended by adding at 
the end the following new paragraph: 
‘‘(h) It shall not be in order to consider any bill, joint 
resolution, amendment, or conference report if that meas-
ure or any accompanying report or joint explanatory state-
ment of managers, as applicable, contains a congressional 
earmark for an organization other than an organization 
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which is exempt from the tax imposed under chapter 1 
of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 or a governmental 
entity.’’. 
(b)(1) Paragraph (b) of clause 9 of rule XXI of the 
Rules of the House of Representatives is amended to read 
as follows: 
‘‘(b) It shall not be in order to consider any con-
ference report if it or the accompanying joint explanatory 
statement prepared by the managers on the part of the 
House and the managers on the part of the Senate con-
tains any congressional earmark, limited tax benefit, or 
limited tariff benefit that was not committed to the con-
ference committee by either House or in a report of a com-
mittee of either House on such bill or joint resolution or 
on a companion measure.’’. 
(2) The second sentence of paragraph (c) of clause 
9 of rule XXI of the Rules of the House of Representatives 
is amended by striking ‘‘or paragraph (b)’’. 
(c)(1) Clause 17(a) of rule XXIII of the Rules of the 
House of Representatives is amended by redesignating 
subparagraphs (4) and (5) as subparagraphs (5) and (6), 
respectively, and by inserting after subparagraph (3) the 
following new subparagraph: 
‘‘(4) in the case of a congressional earmark, the 
Federal nexus or specific power granted to Congress 
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in the Constitution to enact such earmark and the 
previous authorization by law that supports such 
earmark;’’. 
(2) Clause 9 of rule XXI of the Rules of the House 
of Representatives is further amended by adding at the 
end the following new paragraph: 
‘‘(i) It shall not be in order to consider any bill, joint 
resolution, amendment, or conference report unless any 
accompanying report or joint explanatory statement pre-
pared by the managers on the part of the House and the 
managers on the part of the Senate, as applicable, con-
taining any congressional earmark sets forth for each con-
gressional earmark, the Federal nexus or specific power 
granted to Congress in the Constitution to enact such ear-
mark and the previous authorization by law that supports 
such earmark.’’. 
(d) Clause 9 of rule XXI of the Rules of the House 
of Representatives is further amended by adding at the 
end the following new paragraph: 
‘‘(j) It shall not be in order to consider any general 
appropriation bill or any other bill or joint resolution mak-
ing or continuing appropriations, or amendment thereto 
or conference report thereon, if it includes any congres-
sional earmark requested by any member of the Com-
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mittee on Appropriations or inserted at the behest of the 
chair of that committee or of any subcommittee thereof.’’. 
(e) Clause 17 of rule XXIII of the Rules of the House 
of Representatives is amended by adding at the end the 
following new paragraph: 
‘‘(c) Each Member, Delegate, or Resident Commis-
sioner shall maintain an official website and include on 
it a comprehensive, sortable, and searchable database com-
prised of all congressional earmark requests for the cur-
rent fiscal year and for the budget year, including for each 
such request the name and address of any recipient, the 
purpose of the earmark, the Federal nexus or specific 
power granted to Congress in the Constitution to enact 
the earmark, the previous authorization by law that sup-
ports the earmark, and the amount requested. These shall 
be posted when submitted to the applicable committee.’’. 
Æ 
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