I 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1798 
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to eliminate the limitation 
on the foreign earned income exclusion, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 30, 2009 
Mr. MEEKS of New York introduced the following bill; which was referred to 
the Committee on Ways and Means 
A BILL 
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to eliminate 
the limitation on the foreign earned income exclusion, 
and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Working American 
Competitiveness Act’’. 
SEC. 2. ELIMINATION OF LIMITATION ON FOREIGN EARNED 
INCOME EXCLUSION. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Subsections (a) and (b) of section 
911 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (relating to 
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citizens or residents of the United States living abroad) 
are amended to read as follows: 
‘‘(a) EXCLUSION FROM GROSS INCOME.—At the elec-
tion of a qualified individual, there shall be excluded from 
the gross income of such individual, and exempt from tax-
ation under this subtitle, for any taxable year, the foreign 
earned income of such individual. 
‘‘(b) FOREIGN EARNED INCOME.—For purposes of 
this section— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘foreign earned 
income’ with respect to any individual means the 
amount received by such individual from sources 
within a foreign country or countries which con-
stitute earned income attributable to services per-
formed by such individual during the period de-
scribed in subparagraph (A) or (B) of subsection 
(d)(1), whichever is applicable. 
‘‘(2) CERTAIN
AMOUNTS
NOT
INCLUDED
IN 
FOREIGN EARNED INCOME.—The foreign earned in-
come for an individual shall not include amounts— 
‘‘(A) received as a pension or annuity, 
‘‘(B) paid by the United States or an 
agency thereof to an employee of the United 
States or an agency thereof, 
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‘‘(C) included in gross income by reason of 
section 402(b) (relating to taxability of bene-
ficiary of nonexempt trust) or section 403(c) 
(relating to taxability of beneficiary under a 
nonqualified annuity), or 
‘‘(D) received after the close of the taxable 
year following the taxable year in which the 
services to which the amounts are attributable 
are performed.’’. 
(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.— 
(1) Section 911 of the Internal Revenue Code 
of 1986 is amended by striking subsection (c) and 
by redesignating subsections (e), (f), and (g) as sub-
sections (c), (e), and (f), respectively. 
(2) Section 911(d) of such Code is amended by 
striking paragraph (7) and by redesignating para-
graphs (8) and (9) as paragraphs (7) and (8), re-
spectively. 
(3) Section 1402(a)(11) of such Code is amend-
ed by striking ‘‘section 911(a)(1)’’ and inserting 
‘‘section 911(a)’’. 
(c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 
this section shall apply to taxable years beginning after 
the date of the enactment of this Act. 
Æ 
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