II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 59
To end the practice of including more than one subject in a single bill
by requiring that each bill enacted by Congress be limited to only one
subject, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY9, 2025
Mr. P
AULintroduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to
the Committee on Rules and Administration
A BILL
To end the practice of including more than one subject
in a single bill by requiring that each bill enacted by
Congress be limited to only one subject, and for other
purposes.
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 ‘‘One Subject at a Time 4
Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. ONE SUBJECT AT A TIME. 6
(a) O
NESUBJECT.—Each bill or joint resolution 7
shall embrace no more than one subject. 8
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(b) SUBJECT INTITLE.—The subject of a bill or joint 1
resolution shall be clearly and descriptively expressed in 2
the title. 3
(c) A
PPROPRIATIONBILLS.—An appropriations bill 4
shall not contain any general legislation or change to a 5
provision of existing law, the subject of which is not ger-6
mane to the subject matter of each such appropriations 7
bill. This section shall not be construed to prohibit any 8
provision imposing limitations upon the expenditure of 9
funds so appropriated. 10
SEC. 3. ENFORCEMENT. 11
(a) M
ULTIPLESUBJECTS INTITLE.—If the title of 12
an Act or joint resolution addresses two or more unrelated 13
subjects, the entire Act or joint resolution is void. 14
(b) P
ROVISIONSNOTEXPRESSED INTITLE.—If the 15
title of an Act or joint resolution addresses a single sub-16
ject, but the Act contains one or more provisions con-17
cerning a subject that is not clearly and descriptively ex-18
pressed in its title, only such provision or provisions con-19
cerning the subject not clearly and descriptively expressed 20
in the title shall be void. 21
(c) A
PPROPRIATION PROVISIONSOUTSIDESUB-22
COMMITTEE JURISDICTION.—If an Act appropriating 23
funds contains a provision outside of the jurisdiction of 24
the relevant subcommittee of the Committees on Appro-25
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•S 59 IS
priations of the House of Representatives and of the Sen-1
ate, and therefore outside the subject of the bill, such pro-2
vision shall be void. 3
(d) P
ROVISIONS OF APPROPRIATIONBILLSNOT 4
G
ERMANE TO SUBJECTMATTER.—If an Act appro-5
priating funds contains a provision of general legislation 6
or a change of a provision of existing law not germane 7
to the subject matter of such bill, such provision shall be 8
void. 9
(e) C
OMMENCEMENT OF AN ACTION.—Any person 10
aggrieved by the enforcement of, or attempt or threat of 11
enforcement of, an Act passed without having complied 12
with section 2 or this section, or any Member of Congress 13
aggrieved by the failure of the House of Congress of which 14
that individual is a member to comply with any require-15
ment of those sections, shall, regardless of the amount in 16
controversy, have a cause of action under sections 2201 17
and 2202 of title 28, United States Code, against the 18
United States to seek appropriate relief, including an in-19
junction against the enforcement of any law, the passage 20
of which did not conform to section 2 or this section. 21
(f) S
TATE OF REVIEW.—In any judicial action 22
brought pursuant to subsection (e), the standard of review 23
shall be de novo. 24
Æ
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