I 
111TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5454 
To provide an optional fast-track procedure the President may use when 
submitting rescission requests, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 28, 2010 
Mr. SPRATT (for himself, Mr. MINNICK, Ms. BEAN, Mr. BOYD, Mr. BRALEY 
of Iowa, Mr. CONNOLLY of Virginia, Mr. COOPER, Mr. CUELLAR, Mr. 
ELLSWORTH, Ms. GIFFORDS, Mr. LARSEN of Washington, Mr. MATHE-
SON, Mr. MOORE of Kansas, Mr. MURPHY of New York, Mr. OWENS, Mr. 
PETERS, Mr. POMEROY, Mr. QUIGLEY, Mr. RUPPERSBERGER, Mr. 
SCHRADER, and Mr. WELCH) (all by request): introduced the following 
bill; which was referred to the Committee 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 committee 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. TITLE AND PURPOSES. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘Reduce Unnecessary Spending Act of 2010’’. 
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(b) PURPOSE.—This Act creates 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 package of rescissions, 
without amendment. 
SEC. 2. RESCISSIONS OF FUNDING. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Part C of the Impoundment Con-
trol Act of 1974 is amended to read as follows: 
‘‘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. 
‘‘As used 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; 
and any day during which a chamber of Congress is 
not in session shall not be counted as a day of ses-
sion of that chamber; and any day during which nei-
ther 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; and 
‘‘(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; and the term does not include adminis-
trative 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.—Whenever the President proposes that 
Congress rescind funding under the procedures in this 
part, OMB shall transmit a message to Congress con-
taining the information specified in section 1024, and the 
message transmitting the proposal shall be sent to Con-
gress no later than 45 days of session of Congress 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 one 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 Clerk of 
the House of Representatives if the House is not in session 
and to the Secretary of the Senate if the Senate is not 
in session. OMB shall make a copy of the transmittal mes-
sage publicly available, and shall publish in the Federal 
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Register a notice of the message and information on how 
it can be obtained. 
‘‘(c) SPECIAL PACKAGING RULES.—After enactment 
of— 
‘‘(1) a joint resolution making continuing ap-
propriations; 
‘‘(2) a supplemental appropriation bill; or 
‘‘(3) an omnibus appropriation bill, 
covering some or all of the activities customarily funded 
in more than one regular appropriation bill, the President 
may propose as many as two 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, the transmittal 
message shall specify— 
‘‘(1) the dollar amount to be rescinded; 
‘‘(2) the agency, bureau, and account from 
which the rescission shall occur; 
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‘‘(3) the program, project, or activity within the 
account (if applicable) from which the rescission 
shall occur; 
‘‘(4) the amount of funding, if any, that would 
remain for the account, program, project, or activity 
if the rescission request is enacted; and 
‘‘(5) the reasons the President requests the re-
scission. 
In addition, OMB shall designate each separate rescission 
request by number and shall include proposed legislative 
language to accomplish the requested rescission. The pro-
posed legislative language shall not include any changes 
in existing law other than the rescission of funding, and 
shall not include any supplemental appropriations, trans-
fers, or reprogrammings. 
‘‘SEC. 1025. GRANTS OF AND LIMITATIONS ON PRESI-
DENTIAL AUTHORITY. 
‘‘(a) PRESIDENTIAL
AUTHORITY
TO
WITHHOLD 
FUNDING.—If the President proposes a rescission of fund-
ing under this part, then notwithstanding any other provi-
sion of law, OMB is hereby authorized, subject to the time 
limits of subsection (c), to temporarily withhold that fund-
ing from obligation. 
‘‘(b) EXPEDITED PROCEDURES AVAILABLE ONLY 
ONCE PER BILL.—The President may not invoke the pro-
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cedures of this part, or the authority to withhold funding 
granted by subsection (a), on more than one occasion for 
any Act providing funding. 
‘‘(c) TIME LIMITS.—OMB shall make available for 
obligation any funding withheld under subsection (a) on 
the earliest of— 
‘‘(1) the day on which the President determines 
that the continued withholding or reduction no 
longer advances the purpose of legislative consider-
ation of the rescission request; 
‘‘(2) starting from the day on which OMB 
transmitted a message to Congress requesting the 
rescission of funding, 25 calendar days in which the 
House of Representatives has been in session or 25 
calendar days in which the Senate has been in ses-
sion, whichever occurs second; or 
‘‘(3) the last day after which the obligation of 
the funding in question can no longer be fully ac-
complished in a prudent manner before its expira-
tion. 
‘‘SEC. 1026. CONGRESSIONAL CONSIDERATION OF RESCIS-
SION REQUESTS. 
‘‘(a) PREPARATION OF LEGISLATION TO CONSIDER 
A PACKAGE OF EXPEDITED RESCISSION REQUESTS.— 
When the House of Representatives receives a package of 
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expedited rescission requests, the Clerk shall prepare a 
House bill that only rescinds the amounts requested. The 
bill shall read as follows: 
‘‘ ‘There is hereby enacted the rescissions num-
bered [insert number or numbers] as set forth in the 
Presidential message of [insert date] transmitted 
under part C of the Impoundment Control Act of 
1974 as amended.’. 
The Clerk shall include in the bill each numbered rescis-
sion request listed in the Presidential package in question, 
except that the Clerk shall omit a numbered rescission re-
quest if the Chairman of the House Budget Committee, 
after consulting with the Senate Budget Committee, CBO, 
GAO, and the House and Senate committees that have 
jurisdiction over the funding, determines that the num-
bered rescission does not refer to funding or includes mat-
ter not permitted under a request to rescind funding. 
‘‘(b) INTRODUCTION AND REFERRAL OF LEGISLA-
TION TO ENACT A PACKAGE OF EXPEDITED RESCIS-
SIONS.—The majority leader or the minority leader of the 
House of Representatives, or a designee, shall (by request) 
introduce each bill prepared under subsection (a) not later 
than 4 days of session of the House after its transmittal, 
or, if no such bill is introduced within that period, any 
member of the House may introduce the required bill in 
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the required form on the fifth or sixth day of session of 
the House after its transmittal. When such an expedited 
rescission bill is introduced in accordance with the prior 
sentence, it shall be referred to the House committee of 
jurisdiction. A copy of the introduced House bill shall be 
transmitted to the Secretary of the Senate, who shall pro-
vide it to the Senate committee of jurisdiction. 
‘‘(c) HOUSE REPORT AND CONSIDERATION OF LEG-
ISLATION TO ENACT A PACKAGE OF EXPEDITED RESCIS-
SIONS.—The House committee of jurisdiction shall report 
without amendment the bill referred to it under subsection 
(b) not more than 5 days of session of the House after 
the referral. The Committee may order the bill reported 
favorably, unfavorably, or without recommendation. If the 
Committee has not reported the bill by the end of the 5- 
day period, the Committee shall be automatically dis-
charged from further consideration of the bill and it shall 
be placed on the appropriate calendar. 
‘‘(d) HOUSE MOTION TO PROCEED.—After a bill to 
enact an expedited rescission package has been reported 
or the committee of jurisdiction has been discharged under 
subsection (c), it shall be in order to move to proceed to 
consider the bill in the House. A Member who wishes to 
move to proceed to consideration of the bill must announce 
that fact, and the motion to proceed shall be in order only 
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during a time designated by the Speaker within the legis-
lative schedule for the next calendar day of legislative ses-
sion or the one immediately following it. If the Speaker 
does not designate such a time, then 3 or more calendar 
days of legislative session after the bill has been reported 
or discharged, it shall be in order for any Member to move 
to proceed to consider the bill. A motion to proceed shall 
not be in order after the House has disposed of a prior 
motion to proceed with respect to that package of expe-
dited rescissions. The previous question shall be consid-
ered as ordered on the motion to proceed, without inter-
vening motion. A motion to reconsider the vote by which 
the motion to proceed has been disposed of shall not be 
in order. If 5 calendar days of legislative session have 
passed since the bill was reported or discharged under this 
subsection and no Member has made a motion to proceed, 
the bill shall be removed from the calendar. 
‘‘(e) HOUSE CONSIDERATION.—A bill consisting of a 
package of rescissions shall be considered as read. All 
points of order against the bill are waived, except that a 
point of order may be made that one or more numbered 
rescissions included in the bill would enact language con-
taining matter not requested by the President or not per-
mitted under this Act as part of that package. If the Pre-
siding Officer sustains such a point of order, the num-
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bered rescission or rescissions that would enact such lan-
guage are deemed to be automatically stripped from the 
bill and consideration proceeds on the bill as modified. The 
previous question shall be considered as ordered on the 
bill to its passage without intervening motion, except that 
4 hours of debate equally divided and controlled by a pro-
ponent and an opponent are allowed, as well as one motion 
to further limit debate on the bill. A motion to reconsider 
the vote on passage of the bill shall not be in order. 
‘‘(f) SENATE CONSIDERATION.—If the House of Rep-
resentatives approves a House bill enacting a package of 
rescissions, that bill as passed by the House shall be sent 
to the Senate and referred to the Senate committee of ju-
risdiction. That committee shall report without amend-
ment the bill referred to it under this subsection not later 
than 3 days of session of the Senate after the referral. 
The committee may order the bill reported favorably, un-
favorably, or without recommendation. If the committee 
has not reported the bill by the end of the 3-day period, 
the committee shall be automatically discharged from fur-
ther consideration of the bill and it shall be placed on the 
appropriate calendar. On the following day and for 3 sub-
sequent calendar days in which the Senate is in session, 
it shall be in order for any Senator to move to proceed 
to consider the bill in the Senate. Upon such a motion 
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being made, it shall be deemed to have been agreed to 
and the motion to reconsider shall be deemed to have been 
laid on the table. Debate on the bill in the Senate under 
this subsection, and all debatable motions and appeals in 
connection therewith, shall not exceed 10 hours, equally 
divided and controlled in the usual form. Debate in the 
Senate on any debatable motion or appeal in connection 
with such a bill shall be limited to not more than 1 hour, 
to be equally divided and controlled in the usual form. A 
motion to further limit debate on such a bill is not debat-
able. A motion to amend such a bill or strike a provision 
from it is not in order. A motion to recommit such a bill 
is not in order. 
‘‘(g) SENATE POINT OF ORDER.—It shall not be in 
order for the Senate to employ the procedures in this part 
while considering a bill approved by the House enacting 
a package of rescissions under this part if any numbered 
rescission in the bill would enact matter not requested by 
the President or not permitted under this Act as part of 
that package. If a point of order under this section is sus-
tained, consideration of the bill shall no longer be governed 
by subsection (f); instead, consideration shall be governed 
by the Standing Rules of the Senate and any other rules 
applicable to Senate consideration of legislation.’’. 
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(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 
striking the items relating to part C of title 10 and insert-
ing the following new items: 
‘‘PART C—EXPEDITED CONSIDERATION OF PROPOSED RESCISSIONS 
‘‘Sec. 1021. Applicability and disclaimer. 
‘‘Sec. 1022. Definitions. 
‘‘Sec. 1023. Timing and packaging of rescission requests. 
‘‘Sec. 1024. Requests to rescind funding. 
‘‘Sec. 1025. Grants of and limitations on presidential authority. 
‘‘Sec. 1026. Congressional consideration of rescission requests.’’. 
SEC. 3. TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENTS. 
(a) TEMPORARY WITHHOLDING.—In section 1013(c) 
of the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, strike ‘‘section 
1012.’’ and insert ‘‘section 1012 or section 1025.’’ 
(b) RULEMAKING.—Section 904(a) of the Congres-
sional Budget Act of 1974 is amended by striking ‘‘and 
1017’’ and inserting ‘‘1017, and 1026’’ and section 
904(d)(1) is amended by striking ‘‘or section 1017’’ and 
inserting ‘‘or section 1017 or 1026’’. 
SEC. 4. EXPIRATION. 
Part C of the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (as 
amended by this Act) shall expire on December 31, 2014. 
SEC. 5. AMENDMENTS TO PART A OF THE IMPOUNDMENT 
CONTROL ACT. 
Immediately after section 1001 of the Impoundment 
Control Act of 1974, insert the following: 
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‘‘SEC. 1002. RESCINDED FUNDS. 
‘‘If budget authority is rescinded under part B or 
funding is rescinded under part C, the amount so re-
scinded shall revert to the fund whence it came (general 
fund, trust fund, special fund, revolving fund, and so on 
as applicable), except to the extent legislation specifies 
otherwise. 
‘‘SEC. 1003. SEVERABILITY. 
‘‘If the judicial branch of the United States finally 
determines that one or more of the provisions of parts B 
or C violate the Constitution of the United States, the re-
maining provisions of those parts shall continue in ef-
fect.’’. 
Æ 
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