I 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3233 
To amend the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 
to limit the annual cost of appropriation earmarks and to make them 
more predictable, equitable, and transparent. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 16, 2009 
Mrs. LUMMIS (for herself and Mrs. KIRKPATRICK of Arizona) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Rules, and in addi-
tion to the Committee on the Budget, for a period to be subsequently de-
termined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions 
as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To amend the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Con-
trol Act of 1974 to limit the annual cost of appropriation 
earmarks and to make them more predictable, equitable, 
and transparent. 
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 ‘‘Predictable, Equitable, 
and Transparent (PET) Project Act of 2009’’. 
VerDate Nov 24 2008 
05:49 Jul 17, 2009
Jkt 079200
PO 00000
Frm 00001
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3233.IH
H3233
jbell on DSKDVH8Z91PROD with BILLS
SEC. 2. PREDICTABLE AND EQUITABLE EARMARKING. 
(a) ALLOCATION.—Section 302(a) of the Congres-
sional Budget Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 633(a)) is amended 
by adding at the end the following new paragraph: 
‘‘(6) FURTHER DIVISION OF AMOUNTS FOR AP-
PROPRIATION EARMARKS.— 
‘‘(A) IN THE SENATE.—In the Senate, of 
the amount allocated to the Committee on Ap-
propriations for the first fiscal year of the reso-
lution, not more than one half of one percent 
shall be allocated solely to appropriation ear-
marks. Within that appropriation earmark allo-
cation, each Senator shall be entitled to request 
of the committee not more than 1⁄100th of that 
amount. If a Senator makes no such request or 
requests less than is permitted under this sub-
paragraph, then the unused amount shall be 
used to reduce the deficit. If the committee de-
nies any request of a Senator such that his 
total amount of appropriation earmarks is less 
than his 1⁄100th share, then the chairman and 
ranking minority member of the committee 
shall provide the Senator written justification 
for the denial of the request signed by both the 
chairman and ranking minority member. 
VerDate Nov 24 2008 
05:49 Jul 17, 2009
Jkt 079200
PO 00000
Frm 00002
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3233.IH
H3233
jbell on DSKDVH8Z91PROD with BILLS
Senator has any financial interest in the appro-
priation earmark. 
‘‘(2) The website of the Clerk of the Senate shall in-
clude an up-to-date, comprehensive and searchable data-
base that is downloadable and sortable and comprised of 
all requests for appropriation earmarks transmitted to the 
Clerk for the current fiscal year and the budget year pur-
suant to subsection (a).’’. 
(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—The table of con-
tents set forth in section 1(b) of the Congressional Budget 
and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 is amended by in-
serting after the item relating to section 315 the following 
new item: 
‘‘Sec. 316. Transparent earmarking in the House of Representatives and the 
Senate.’’. 
SEC. 4. HOUSE AND SENATE RULES AMENDMENTS RE-
SPECTING EARMARKS IN CONFERENCE RE-
PORTS. 
(a) IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.—Para-
graph (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 a conference 
report to accompany a regular general appropriation bill 
if that bill or the accompanying joint explanatory state-
ment contains any congressional earmark that was not 
committed to the conference committee by either House 
VerDate Nov 24 2008 
05:49 Jul 17, 2009
Jkt 079200
PO 00000
Frm 00007
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3233.IH
H3233
jbell on DSKDVH8Z91PROD with BILLS
nor in a report of a committee of either House on such 
bill or on a companion measure.’’. 
(b) IN THE SENATE.—[Language to be inserted.] 
SEC. 5. RULEMAKING POWER. 
This Act is enacted by the Congress— 
(1) as an exercise of the rulemaking power of 
the House of Representatives and the Senate, re-
spectively, and as such they shall be considered as 
part of the rules of each House, respectively, or of 
that House to which they specifically apply, and 
such rules shall supersede other rules only to the ex-
tent that they are inconsistent therewith; and 
(2) with full recognition of the constitutional 
right of either House to change such rules (so far 
as relating to such House) at any time, in the same 
manner, and to the same extent as in the case of 
any other rule of such House. 
Æ 
VerDate Nov 24 2008 
05:49 Jul 17, 2009
Jkt 079200
PO 00000
Frm 00008
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6301
E:\BILLS\H3233.IH
H3233
jbell on DSKDVH8Z91PROD with BILLS