I 
112TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1043 
To provide an optional fast-track procedure the President may use when 
submitting rescission requests, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 11, 2011 
Mr. VAN HOLLEN (for himself, Mr. CONNOLLY of Virginia, Mr. WELCH, Mr. 
MCGOVERN, Mr. MATHESON, Mr. OWENS, Mr. SHULER, Mr. COOPER, 
Mr. BOSWELL, Mr. SCHRADER, Mr. PETERS, Mr. QUIGLEY, Mr. LARSEN 
of Washington, Mr. BRALEY of Iowa, Mr. HONDA, Ms. BASS of Cali-
fornia, Mr. ALTMIRE, Mr. BARROW, Mr. COSTA, Mr. CUELLAR, Mr. ROSS 
of Arkansas, Mr. CARDOZA, Mr. PETERSON, Mr. BOREN, Mr. DONNELLY 
of Indiana, Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia, and Mr. MCINTYRE) (all by 
request): introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on the Budget, and in addition to the Committee on Rules, 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 com-
mittee concerned 
A BILL 
To provide an optional fast-track procedure the President 
may use when submitting rescission requests, 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 AND PURPOSES. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘Reduce Unnecessary Spending Act of 2011’’. 
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(b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this Act is to create 
an optional fast-track procedure the President may use 
when submitting rescission requests, which would lead to 
an up-or-down vote by Congress on the President’s pack-
age of rescissions, without amendment. 
SEC. 2. RESCISSIONS OF FUNDING. 
The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 is amended 
by striking part C and inserting the following: 
‘‘PART C—EXPEDITED CONSIDERATION OF 
PROPOSED RESCISSIONS 
‘‘SEC. 1021. APPLICABILITY AND DISCLAIMER. 
‘‘The rules, procedures, requirements, and definitions 
in this part apply only to executive and legislative actions 
explicitly taken under this part. They do not apply to ac-
tions taken under part B or to other executive and legisla-
tive actions not taken under this part. 
‘‘SEC. 1022. DEFINITIONS. 
‘‘In this part: 
‘‘(1) The terms ‘appropriation Act’, ‘budget au-
thority’, and ‘new budget authority’ have the same 
meanings as in section 3 of the Congressional Budg-
et Act of 1974. 
‘‘(2) The terms ‘account’, ‘current year’, ‘CBO’, 
and ‘OMB’ have the same meanings as in section 
250 of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit 
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Control Act of 1985 as in effect on September 30, 
2002. 
‘‘(3) The term ‘days of session’ shall be cal-
culated by excluding weekends and national holidays. 
Any day during which a chamber of Congress is not 
in session shall not be counted as a day of session 
of that chamber. Any day during which neither 
chamber is in session shall not be counted as a day 
of session of Congress. 
‘‘(4) The term ‘entitlement law’ means the stat-
utory mandate or requirement of the United States 
to incur a financial obligation unless that obligation 
is explicitly conditioned on the appropriation in sub-
sequent legislation of sufficient funds for that pur-
pose, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance 
Program. 
‘‘(5) The term ‘funding’ refers to new budget 
authority and obligation limits except to the extent 
that the funding is provided for entitlement law. 
‘‘(6) The term ‘rescind’ means to eliminate or 
reduce the amount of enacted funding. 
‘‘(7) The terms ‘withhold’ and ‘withholding’ 
apply to any executive action or inaction that pre-
cludes the obligation of funding at a time when it 
would otherwise have been available to an agency for 
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obligation. The terms do not include administrative 
or preparatory actions undertaken prior to obligation 
in the normal course of implementing budget laws. 
‘‘SEC. 1023. TIMING AND PACKAGING OF RESCISSION RE-
QUESTS. 
‘‘(a) TIMING.—If the President proposes that Con-
gress rescind funding under the procedures in this part, 
OMB shall transmit a message to Congress containing the 
information specified in section 1024, and the message 
transmitting the proposal shall be sent to Congress not 
later than 45 calendar days after the date of enactment 
of the funding. 
‘‘(b) PACKAGING AND TRANSMITTAL OF REQUESTED 
RESCISSIONS.—Except as provided in subsection (c), for 
each piece of legislation that provides funding, the Presi-
dent shall request at most 1 package of rescissions and 
the rescissions in that package shall apply only to funding 
contained in that legislation. OMB shall deliver each mes-
sage requesting a package of rescissions to the Secretary 
of the Senate if the Senate is not in session and to the 
Clerk of the House of Representatives if the House is not 
in session. OMB shall make a copy of the transmittal mes-
sage publicly available, and shall publish in the Federal 
Register a notice of the message and information on how 
it can be obtained. 
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‘‘(c) SPECIAL PACKAGING RULES.—After enactment 
of— 
‘‘(1) a joint resolution making continuing ap-
propriations; 
‘‘(2) a supplemental appropriations bill; or 
‘‘(3) an omnibus appropriations bill; 
covering some or all of the activities customarily funded 
in more than 1 regular appropriations bill, the President 
may propose as many as 2 packages rescinding funding 
contained in that legislation, each within the 45-day period 
specified in subsection (a). OMB shall not include the 
same rescission in both packages, and, if the President 
requests the rescission of more than one discrete amount 
of funding under the jurisdiction of a single subcommittee, 
OMB shall include each of those discrete amounts in the 
same package. 
‘‘SEC. 1024. REQUESTS TO RESCIND FUNDING. 
‘‘For each request to rescind funding under this part, 
the transmittal message shall— 
‘‘(1) specify— 
‘‘(A) the dollar amount to be rescinded; 
‘‘(B) the agency, bureau, and account from 
which the rescission shall occur; 
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