[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2022 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2022

To prohibit the implementation or enforcement of any requirement of the 
  Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act until certifications are 
    made that taxpayer information is not and will not be used for 
  targeting any individual or group that provides information to the 
   Internal Revenue Service for political reasons or on the basis of 
                political views, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 16, 2013

   Mrs. Black (for herself, Mr. Hall, Mr. Boustany, and Mr. Kelly of 
Pennsylvania) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Ways and Means, and in addition to the Committee on Energy 
    and Commerce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the 
  Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall 
           within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To prohibit the implementation or enforcement of any requirement of the 
  Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act until certifications are 
    made that taxpayer information is not and will not be used for 
  targeting any individual or group that provides information to the 
   Internal Revenue Service for political reasons or on the basis of 
                political views, and for other purposes.

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

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The Internal Revenue Service currently administers 47 
        tax provisions under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care 
        Act.
            (2) The Internal Revenue Service and its employees will 
        have significantly greater access than it currently has to 
        taxpayer information for the enforcement and enactment of the 
        individual mandate under the Patient Protection and Affordable 
        Care Act.
            (3) No government agency has more authority in the 
        enforcement of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act 
        than the Internal Revenue Service.
            (4) According to one study, the Patient Protection and 
        Affordable Care Act employer mandate would put up to 3.2 
        million jobs at risk. Echoing that, the Federal Reserve warned, 
        ``Employers in several Districts cited the unknown effects of 
        the Affordable Care Act as reasons for planned layoffs and 
        reluctance to hire more staff.''.
            (5) According to previous reports from the Government 
        Accountability Office (GAO) and Treasury Inspector General for 
        Tax Administration, the Internal Revenue Service did not have 
        adequate processes in place to accurately review and account 
        for the taxpayer dollars the Internal Revenue Service are 
        spending to implement the controversial law.
            (6) The Internal Revenue Service has proven it is a 
        government agency wrought with fraud and abuse, and has not 
        been capable of ensuring the constitutional rights of American 
        citizens is not infringed upon.
            (7) According to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax 
        Administration, the Internal Revenue Service's Determinations 
        Unit began searching as far back as 2010 ``for other requests 
        for exemption involving Tea Party, Patriots, 9/12 and Internal 
        Revenue Code of 1986 501(c)(4) applications involving political 
        sounding names, e.g., `We the People' or `Take Back the 
        Country'''.
            (8) According to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax 
        Administration, on June 29, 2011, IRS Exempted Organizations 
        Division director Lois Lerner is apprised of the Internal 
        Revenue Service's discriminatory practices.
            (9) On March 22, 2012, the Ways and Means Oversight 
        Subcommittee held a hearing on the tax return filing season and 
        general Internal Revenue Service operations where Chairman 
        Boustany asks then-Internal Revenue Service Commissioner 
        Shulman about reports that the Internal Revenue Service has 
        been targeting Tea Party groups. Shulman responds, ``I can give 
        you assurance . . . there is absolutely no targeting.''.

SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON IMPLEMENTATION OR ENFORCEMENT OF ANY REQUIREMENT 
              OF THE PATIENT PROTECTION AND AFFORDABLE CARE ACT UNTIL 
              CERTIFICATION THAT TAXPAYER INFORMATION IS NOT AND WILL 
              NOT BE USED FOR TARGETING ANY INDIVIDUAL OR GROUP FOR 
              POLITICAL REASONS OR ON BASIS OF POLITICAL VIEWS.

    (a) Violations of Rights Before Enactment.--The Internal Revenue 
Service shall not implement or enforce any requirement of the Patient 
Protection and Affordable Care Act or title I of the Health Care and 
Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, including any requirement 
contained in an amendment made by those Acts, until the Secretary of 
the Treasury certifies under penalty of perjury that with respect to 
any activity before the date of the enactment of this Act--
            (1) taxpayer information is not and will not be used for 
        targeting any individual or group that provides information to 
        the Internal Revenue Service for political reasons or on the 
        basis of political views, and
            (2) the Internal Revenue Service has terminated the 
        employment of all employees in accordance with section 1203 of 
        the Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act of 
        1998 (26 U.S.C. 7804 note) who, with respect to actions before 
        the enactment of this Act, are found to have violated the 
        constitutional rights of any taxpayer, including any employee 
        who knew of abuses related to the targeting of a political 
        group within the Internal Revenue Services, declined to come 
        forward, or willfully misled investigators.
    (b) Violations of Rights After Enactment.--
            (1) Rights.--Taxpayer information shall not be used for 
        targeting any individual or group that provides information to 
        the Internal Revenue Service for political reasons or on the 
        basis of political views.
            (2) Certification.--After the date of the enactment of this 
        Act, a department or agency concerned--
                    (A) shall not implement or enforce, or
                    (B) if a violation of paragraph (1) occurs by any 
                employee of the department or agency, shall suspend the 
                implementation or enforcement of,
        any requirement of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care 
        Act or title I of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation 
        Act of 2010, including any requirement contained in an 
        amendment made by those Acts, until the head of such department 
        or agency (the Secretary of the Treasury in the case of the 
        Internal Revenue Service) certifies under penalty of perjury 
        that the department or agency has terminated the employment of 
        any employee of the department or agency in accordance with 
        section 1203 of the Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and 
        Reform Act of 1998 (26 U.S.C. 7804 note) who, with respect to 
        actions before the enactment of this Act, is found to have 
        violated the constitutional rights of any taxpayer.
    (c) Process To Resume Implementation.--In any case in which the 
implementation or enforcement of any requirement described in 
subsection (a)(1) or (b)(1) was prevented or suspended by subsection 
(a) or (b) (as the case may be), such implementation or enforcement 
shall not thereafter take effect or resume (as the case may be) until 
90 calendar days after the date on which the certification required by 
this section is made with respect to any such prevention or suspension, 
unless before such 90-day period a joint resolution disapproving such 
certification is enacted.
    (d) Definition and Special Rules.--For purposes of this section--
            (1) Covered department or agency.--The term ``department or 
        agency concerned'' means the Internal Revenue Service, the 
        Department of Health and Human Services, and any other 
        department or agency from which information is centralized in 
        one place, such as in the Federal Data Services Hub or any 
        similar database.
            (2) Applicability of termination of employment authority.--
        The provisions of section 1203 of the Internal Revenue Service 
        Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 (26 U.S.C. 7804) shall 
        apply with respect to any department or agency concerned, and 
        for such purposes, such section shall be applied by 
        substituting the ``head of the department or agency concerned'' 
        for the ``Commissioner of Internal Revenue'' and the 
        ``department or agency concerned'' for the ``Internal Revenue 
        Service''.
            (3) Prohibition on delegating responsibility of secretary 
        of the treasury.--The responsibility of the Secretary of the 
        Treasury under this section may not be delegated.
    (e) Submission to Congress.--The head of the department or agency 
making a certification under this section shall submit the 
certification to the Congress.
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