Bill > S1930

This bill, known as the Earmark Elimination Act of 2011, aims to prohibit earmarks, which are provisions in legislation inserted primarily at the request of a member of Congress to benefit a specific entity, state, locality, or congressional district, often bypassing standard competitive or formula-driven award processes. The bill makes it out of order in the Senate to consider any bill, resolution, or conference report that contains an earmark, meaning a point of order can be raised against it. If such a point of order is sustained, the earmark is removed. However, any Senator can propose to waive these prohibitions with a two-thirds vote of all Senators. Importantly, this act does not apply to appropriations for federal entities if they are not specifically targeted to a particular state, locality, or congressional district.