Earmark Elimination Act of 2020

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 6211 To prohibit the consideration in the House of Representatives of any legislation containing an earmark. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MARCH 11, 2020 Mr. NORMAN (for himself and Mr. BUDD) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Rules A BILL To prohibit the consideration in the House of Representatives of any legislation containing an earmark. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Earmark Elimination 4 Act of 2020’’. 5 SEC. 2. PROHIBITING CONSIDERATION OF LEGISLATION 6 CONTAINING EARMARKS. 7 (a) PROHIBITION.— 8 (1) IN GENERAL.—It shall not be in order in 9 the House of Representatives to consider any bill, 10 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:59 Mar 18, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6211.IH H6211 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 6211 IH joint resolution, amendment, or conference report if 1 the bill, joint resolution, amendment, or conference 2 report, or any accompanying report or joint explana- 3 tory statement of managers, includes a congressional 4 earmark, limited tax benefit, or limited tariff benefit. 5 (2) PROCEDURE.—If a point of order is raised 6 under paragraph (1) with respect to a congressional 7 earmark, limited tax benefit, or limited tariff benefit 8 and the point of order is sustained, the congressional 9 earmark, limited tax benefit, or limited tariff benefit 10 shall be deemed to be stricken from the measure in- 11 volved. 12 (3) SPECIAL PROCEDURE FOR CONFERENCE 13 REPORT AND AMENDMENTS BETWEEN THE 14 HOUSES.— 15 (A) IN GENERAL.—If a point of order is 16 raised and sustained under paragraph (1) with 17 respect to a conference report or a motion that 18 the House recede from its disagreement to a 19 Senate amendment and concur therein, with or 20 without amendment, then after disposition of all 21 such points of order the conference report or 22 motion, as the case may be, shall be considered 23 as rejected and the matter remaining in dis- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:59 Mar 18, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6211.IH H6211 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 6211 IH agreement shall be disposed of under subpara- 1 graph (B) or (C), as the case may be. 2 (B) CONFERENCE REPORTS.—After the 3 House has sustained one or more points of 4 order under paragraph (1) with respect to a 5 conference report— 6 (i) if the conference report accom- 7 panied a House measure amended by the 8 Senate, the pending question shall be 9 whether the House shall recede and concur 10 in the Senate amendment with an amend- 11 ment consisting of so much of the con- 12 ference report as was not rejected; and 13 (ii) if the conference report accom- 14 panied a Senate measure amended by the 15 House, the pending question shall be 16 whether the House shall insist further on 17 the House amendment. 18 (C) MOTIONS.—After the House has sus- 19 tained one or more points of order under para- 20 graph (1) with respect to a motion that the 21 House recede and concur in a Senate amend- 22 ment, with or without amendment, the following 23 motions shall be privileged and shall have prece- 24 dence in the order stated: 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:59 Mar 18, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6211.IH H6211 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 6211 IH (i) A motion that the House recede 1 and concur in the Senate amendment with 2 an amendment in writing then available on 3 the floor. 4 (ii) A motion that the House insist on 5 its disagreement to the Senate amendment 6 and request a further conference with the 7 Senate. 8 (iii) A motion that the House insist 9 on its disagreement to the Senate amend- 10 ment. 11 (b) DETERMINATION BY HOUSE.—If a point of order 12 is raised under this section and the Chair is unable to as- 13 certain whether a provision constitutes a congressional 14 earmark, limited tax benefit, or limited tariff benefit, the 15 Chair shall put the question to the House and the question 16 shall be decided without debate or intervening motion. 17 (c) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Rule XXI of the 18 Rules of the House of Representatives is amended by 19 striking clause 9. 20 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 21 In this Act— 22 (1) the term ‘‘congressional earmark’’ means a 23 provision or report language included primarily at 24 the request of a Member, Delegate, Resident Com- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:59 Mar 18, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6211.IH H6211 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 6211 IH missioner, or Senator providing, authorizing or rec- 1 ommending a specific amount of discretionary budg- 2 et authority, credit authority, or other spending au- 3 thority for a contract, loan, loan guarantee, grant, 4 loan authority, or other expenditure with or to an 5 entity, or targeted to a specific State, locality or con- 6 gressional district, other than through a statutory or 7 administrative formula-driven or competitive award 8 process; 9 (2) the term ‘‘limited tax benefit’’ means— 10 (A) any revenue-losing provision that— 11 (i) provides a Federal tax deduction, 12 credit, exclusion, or preference to 10 or 13 fewer beneficiaries under the Internal Rev- 14 enue Code of 1986; and 15 (ii) contains eligibility criteria that are 16 not uniform in application with respect to 17 potential beneficiaries of such provision; or 18 (B) any Federal tax provision which pro- 19 vides one beneficiary temporary or permanent 20 transition relief from a change to the Internal 21 Revenue Code of 1986; and 22 (3) the term ‘‘limited tariff benefit’’ means a 23 provision modifying the Harmonized Tariff Schedule 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:59 Mar 18, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6211.IH H6211 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 6211 IH of the United States in a manner that benefits 10 1 or fewer entities. 2 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:59 Mar 18, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H6211.IH H6211 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS