[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3411 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

112th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3411

To provide that the individual mandate under the Patient Protection and 
          Affordable Care Act shall not be construed as a tax.


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                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             July 19, 2012

    Mr. Lee introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
                  referred to the Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To provide that the individual mandate under the Patient Protection and 
          Affordable Care Act shall not be construed as a tax.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds that on June 28, 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that 
the individual mandate imposed by section 1501 of the Patient 
Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111-148) and amended by 
section 10106 of such Act and sections 1002 and 1004 of the Health Care 
and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Public Law 111-152), has 
certain functional characteristics of a tax and could be sustained as 
an exercise of Congress's power to tax under article I, section 8, 
clause 1 of the Constitution.

SEC. 2. CLASSIFICATION OF INDIVIDUAL MANDATE AS NON-TAX.

    (a) In General.--Section 1501 of the Patient Protection and 
Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111-148) is amended by adding at the 
end the following new subsection:
    ``(e) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in the amendments made by this 
section shall be construed as imposing any tax or as an exercise of any 
power of Congress enumerated in article I, section 8, clause 1 of, or 
the 16th amendment to, the Constitution.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by this section shall apply 
as if included in the enactment of section 1501 of the Patient 
Protection and Affordable Care Act.
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