I 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 446 
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to repeal certain limitations 
on the expensing of section 179 property, to allow taxpayers to elect 
shorter recovery periods for purposes of determining the deduction for 
depreciation, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 9, 2009 
Mr. SESSIONS (for himself, Mr. MARCHANT, Mr. DREIER, Mr. MCHUGH, Mr. 
CONAWAY, Mr. TIAHRT, Mr. MCCAUL, and Mr. SENSENBRENNER) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways 
and Means 
A BILL 
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to repeal 
certain limitations on the expensing of section 179 prop-
erty, to allow taxpayers to elect shorter recovery periods 
for purposes of determining the deduction for deprecia-
tion, 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 ‘‘Expensing Property 
Expands our Nation’s Strong Economy Act of 2009’’ or 
as the ‘‘EXPENSE Act of 2009’’. 
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SEC. 3. ELECTION OF SHORTER RECOVERY PERIOD FOR 
PURPOSE OF DETERMINING DEPRECIATION 
DEDUCTION. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 168 of the Internal Rev-
enue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end the 
following new subsection: 
‘‘(l) ELECTION OF SHORTER RECOVERY PERIOD.— 
‘‘(1) 
IN
GENERAL.—Notwithstanding 
sub-
sections (c), (e), (g), and (j), for purposes of sub-
section (a), the applicable recovery period for any 
property placed in service during a taxable year end-
ing on or after the date of the enactment of this 
subsection shall not exceed any period of two or 
more years elected by the taxpayer with respect to 
such property. 
‘‘(2) ELECTION.—An election made under this 
subsection shall be made at such time and in such 
form and manner as the Secretary may require. An 
election under this subsection, once made, shall 
apply to the taxable year for which made and all 
subsequent taxable years unless revoked with the 
consent of the Secretary. 
‘‘(3) TRANSITION RULE.—In the case of any 
property placed in service during a taxable year end-
ing before the date of the enactment of this sub-
section, paragraph (1) shall apply with respect to 
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the adjusted basis of such property in the same 
manner as if such property (with such adjusted 
basis) were placed in service on the first day of the 
taxable year which includes the date of the enact-
ment of this subsection. The application of this 
paragraph shall not be treated as a change in meth-
od of accounting for purposes of section 481.’’. 
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 
this section shall apply to property placed in service be-
fore, on, or after the date of the enactment of this Act. 
Æ 
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