S. 1544: Jurassic Pork Act

114th Congress · introduced 2015-06-10 · Economics and Public Finance · Latest: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Appropriations.

federal

Follow this bill, step by step

Where it came from: introduced 2015-06-10 · official record
Who proposed it: Sen. Flake, Jeff [R-AZ] · what a sponsor is
What happened next: no floor votes in our records yet. Why?
Where it stands now: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Appropriations. Not final yet: this can still change. We check for updates every day.
If it becomes law and spends money: follow the money to money laws, then agencies and contracts and grants.

What does this mean?

Official title

Jurassic Pork Act

Plain summary

Jurassic Pork Act This bill rescinds unused earmarks previously appropriated to the Department of Transportation (DOT) and transfers the balances to the Highway Trust Fund. Under the House and Senate rules, an earmark is a provision or report language included primarily at the request of a Member of Congress providing, authorizing, or recommending a specific amount of discretionary budget authority, credit authority, or other spending authority for a contract, loan, loan guarantee, grant, loan authority, or other expenditure with or to an entity, or targeted to a specific state, locality or congressional district, other than through a statutory or administrative formula-driven or competitive award process. Under this bill, earmarks provided to DOT are unused and rescinded if more than 90% of the funding remains available for obligation at the end of the 9th fiscal year following the year the earmark was made available. DOT may delay the rescission if it determines that an additional obligation is likely to occur during the 10th year after funds were made available. The bill requires each federal agency to submit an annual report to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) identifying: (1) each earmark for a project that is ineligible for funding, (2) projects for which funding has been made available under an earmark, and (3) projects with unobligated balances. OMB must submit to Congress and post on its website an annual report including an accounting of unobligated earmarks, rescissions resulting from this bill, and DOT earmarks scheduled to be rescinded.

Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in Senate), quoted unchanged (nonpartisan). Read the source.

What a vote does

A “Yea” vote

If it passes both chambers and is signed, it becomes law.

A “Nay” vote

If it is not passed, current law stays as it is.

PSI Sci description of the legislative step (not an opinion).

What does this mean? (plain words)

Official text

Jurassic Pork Act

Source: Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in Senate)

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The strongest published arguments

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How did my representative vote? · This bill's floor votes

Officials and money

Sponsor: Sen. Flake, Jeff [R-AZ] · 2 cosponsors

Cost estimate: No cost estimate published yet.

Cosponsors on this site

James Lankford (R-OK)

No linked floor roll calls in our collected records yet. This does not mean the bill has never had a vote. Check the official bill history.

Words on this page, explained (6)

Appropriation: Money a legislature sets aside by law for a specific purpose. Government agencies may spend public money only as it has been appropriated.
Bill: A proposed law. It becomes law only if it passes the legislature and is signed by the president or governor (or a veto is overridden).
Fiscal year: The 12-month period a government uses for its budget. The federal fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30 and is named for the calendar year in which it ends. Most states use July 1 to June 30.
Obligation: A binding promise by a government agency to pay money, for example by signing a contract or awarding a grant. Spending data such as USAspending.gov counts money when it is obligated, which can be before it is actually paid out.
Rulemaking: The process agencies use to write regulations that carry out laws passed by Congress or a legislature. Usually an agency publishes a proposed rule, takes public comments, then publishes a final rule.
Statute: A written law passed by a legislature. A statute can be changed by a later law; changing a constitution needs an amendment.

Plain meanings written from linked sources. All words.

Sources

Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in Senate)
Congress.gov
Data: GovInfo BILLSTATUS bulk data (Library of Congress), BILLSTATUS-114s1544.xml <https://www.govinfo.gov/bulkdata/BILLSTATUS/114/s>

Record fed-us-cong114-s1544 · catalog fed-us-congress-bills-cong114 · updated 2026-11-15 by psicol fed-bills-cong114