IV 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 440 
Amending the Rules of the House of Representatives to strengthen the public 
disclosure of all earmark requests. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 14, 2009 
Mr. CASSIDY (for himself and Ms. SPEIER) submitted the following resolution; 
which was referred to the Committee on Rules, and in addition to the 
Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, for a period to be subse-
quently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such 
provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
RESOLUTION 
Amending the Rules of the House of Representatives to 
strengthen the public disclosure of all earmark requests. 
Resolved, That (a) rule XXIII of the Rules of the 
House of Representatives is amended by redesignating 
clause 18 as clause 19 and by inserting after clause 17 
the following: 
‘‘18. A Member, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner 
who requests a congressional earmark, a limited tax ben-
efit, or a limited tariff benefit shall, within 24 hours after 
making such request— 
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‘‘(1) post on his or her public website for the 
remainder of the Congress the following— 
‘‘(A) the name and address of the intended 
recipient; 
‘‘(B) the requested amount (only in the 
case of congressional earmarks); and 
‘‘(C) an explanation of the request, includ-
ing the purpose, and why it is a valuable use 
of taxpayer funds; 
‘‘(2) electronically submit to the committee of 
subject-matter jurisdiction the webpage address 
where such information is posted; 
‘‘(3) identify each request as having been sub-
mitted to the committee of subject-matter jurisdic-
tion; and 
‘‘(4) display on the homepage of such website a 
hypertext link that contains the words ‘Earmarks’, 
‘Appropriations Requests’, ‘Limited Tax Benefits’, 
or ‘Limited Tariff Benefits’ and that directs to such 
webpage address, and maintain that link for at least 
30 calendar days after the last such request is made 
during the Congress.’’. 
(b) The last sentence of clause 16 of rule XXIII of 
the Rules of the House of Representatives is amended by 
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striking ‘‘and clause 17’’ and inserting ‘‘, clause 17, and 
clause 18’’. 
SEC. 2. Rule XI of the Rules of the House of Rep-
resentatives is amended by adding at the end the following 
new clause: 
‘‘Earmark disclosure websites 
‘‘(s)(1) Any committee that accepts any request of 
a Member, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner for a con-
gressional earmark, a limited tax benefit, or a limited tar-
iff benefit shall maintain a public website with an earmark 
disclosure webpage that contains the following for each 
such request— 
‘‘(A) the bill name; 
‘‘(B) the name, State, and district of that indi-
vidual; 
‘‘(C) the name and address of the intended re-
cipient; 
‘‘(D) the requested amount (only in the case of 
congressional earmarks); 
‘‘(E) a brief description; and 
‘‘(F) the applicable department or agency of the 
Government, and the account or program (if pro-
vided to the committee in the request); 
and is in a downloadable format that is searchable and 
sortable by such characteristics. 
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‘‘(2) Any written statement received by a committee 
under clause 17(a) of rule XXIII shall be posted on the 
earmark disclosure webpage of the committee. 
‘‘(3) The earmark disclosure webpage of a committee 
shall list the names of any Member, Delegate, and Resi-
dent Commissioner who requests a congressional earmark, 
a limited tax benefit, or a limited tariff benefit and link 
directly to their webpage addresses referred to in clause 
18(2) of rule XXIII. 
‘‘(4) The earmark disclosure webpage of a committee 
shall post the information required under subparagraphs 
(1) through (3) within one week of receipt, and shall main-
tain that information on that webpage for the remainder 
of the Congress. 
‘‘(5) For purposes of this paragraph, the terms ‘con-
gressional earmark’, ‘limited tax benefit’, and ‘limited tar-
iff benefit’ shall have the meaning given them in clause 
9 of rule XXI.’’. 
SEC. 3. Clause 9 of rule XXI of the Rules of the 
House of Representatives is amended by redesignating 
paragraphs (e), (f), and (g) as paragraphs (f), (g), and 
(h), respectively, and by inserting after paragraph (d) the 
following: 
‘‘(e) It shall not be in order to consider any bill or 
joint resolution, or an amendment thereto or conference 
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report thereon, that carries a congressional earmark, lim-
ited tax benefit, or limited tariff benefit for which a Mem-
ber, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner failed to comply 
with any applicable requirement of clause 18 of rule 
XXIII.’’. 
SEC. 4. The amendments made by this resolution 
shall apply to requests for congressional earmarks, limited 
tax benefits, and limited tariff benefits made after the 
date this resolution is agreed to. 
Æ 
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