IV 
112TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 471 
Amending the Rules of the House of Representatives to require that rescission 
bills always be considered under open rules every year, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
NOVEMBER 17, 2011 
Mr. KING of Iowa (for himself, Mr. CHABOT, Mr. PAUL, Mr. WALSH of Illi-
nois, and Mr. WESTMORELAND) submitted the following resolution; which 
was referred to the Committee on Rules 
RESOLUTION 
Amending the Rules of the House of Representatives to 
require that rescission bills always be considered under 
open rules every year, and for other purposes. 
Whereas a rescissions bill, which would cut Federal spending, 
should be brought to the House floor at the beginning of 
every fiscal quarter to give Congress the opportunity to 
cut and cancel unnecessary, wasteful, and bloated Gov-
ernment spending to eliminate the deficit; 
Whereas any Federal appropriations that have not yet been 
spent would be on the table for cuts; 
Whereas the House of Representatives would consider this 
spending-slashing bill under an open rule procedure that 
allows any Member of Congress to offer an amendment 
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•HRES 471 IH 
to cut Federal spending and demand a recorded vote to 
hold Congress accountable; 
Whereas in this spending-cutting process every single spend-
ing item would be up for reconsideration and no Member 
of Congress could make excuses for failing to cut spend-
ing because the process would provide a record of their 
actions; 
Whereas the taxpayer money saved through this spending- 
cutting process will be returned to the general fund and 
cannot be used for new spending; 
Whereas the process of cutting spending should be open to 
the public, by posting this spending-cutting bill and its 
amendments on the Internet, so that Americans can exer-
cise their right to contact their Members of Congress and 
make their views known; and 
Whereas this rescissions spending-cutting process will dis-
cipline Federal spending and save taxpayer money: Now, 
therefore, be it 
Resolved, That (a) this resolution may be cited as the 
‘‘Cut the Unnecessary Tab Resolution’’ or the ‘‘CUT Res-
olution’’. 
(b) Clause 6(c) of rule XIII of the Rules of the House 
of Representatives is amended by inserting before the pe-
riod the following ‘‘or a rule or order that would limit any 
amendment that would otherwise be in order to a rescis-
sion bill’’. 
(c) Clause 4(b) of rule X of the Rules of the House 
of Representatives is amended by inserting ‘‘(1)’’ after 
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‘‘(b)’’, by redesignating subparagraphs (1) through (6) as 
subdivisions (A) through (F), respectively, and by adding 
at the end the following: 
‘‘(2)(A) Whenever a rescission bill passes the House, 
the Committee on the Budget shall immediately reduce the 
applicable allocations under section 302(a) of the Congres-
sional Budget Act of 1974 by the total amount of reduc-
tions in budget authority and in outlays resulting from 
such rescission bill. 
‘‘(B) As used in this subparagraph, the term ‘rescis-
sion bill’ means a bill or joint resolution which only re-
scinds, in whole or in part, budget authority and which 
includes only titles corresponding to the most recently en-
acted appropriation bills that continue to include unobli-
gated balances.’’. 
(d) Rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Represent-
atives is amended by adding at the end the following new 
clause: 
‘‘8. (a) By February 1, May 1, July 30, and Novem-
ber 11 of each session, the majority leader shall introduce 
a rescission bill. If such bill is not introduced by that date, 
then whenever a rescission bill is introduced during a ses-
sion on or after that date, a motion to discharge the com-
mittee from its consideration shall be privileged after the 
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10-legislative day period beginning on that date for the 
first 5 such bills. 
‘‘(b) It shall not be in order to offer any amendment 
to a rescission bill except an amendment that increases 
the amount of budget authority that such bill rescinds. 
‘‘(c) As used in this clause and in clause 6, the term 
‘rescission bill’ has the meaning given such term in clause 
4(b)(2)(B) of rule X.’’. 
(e) Rule XXI of the Rules of the House of Represent-
atives is amended by adding at the end the following new 
clause: 
‘‘11. (a) It shall not be in order to consider any re-
scission bill, or conference report thereon or amendment 
thereto, unless— 
‘‘(1) in the case of such bill or conference re-
port, it is made available to Members and the gen-
eral public on the Internet for at least 48 hours be-
fore its consideration; or 
‘‘(2)(A) in the case of an amendment to such 
rescission bill made in order by a rule, it is made 
available to Members and the general public on the 
Internet within one hour after the rule is filed; or 
‘‘(B) in the case of an amendment under an 
open rule, it is made available to Members and the 
general public on the Internet immediately after 
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being offered in a format that is searchable and 
sortable. 
‘‘(3) No amendment to an amendment to a re-
scission bill shall be in order unless germane to the 
amendment to which it is offered.’’. 
Æ 
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