[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 1 (Wednesday, January 5, 2011)]
[House]
[Page H42]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

           By Mr. GARRETT:
       H.R. 21.
       Congress has the power to enact this legislation pursuant 
     to the following:
       This bill seeks to strike a provision from the Patient 
     Protection and Affordable Care Act, the so-called 
     ``individual mandate,'' which is unconstitutional.
       The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires 
     individuals to purchase private health insurance--health 
     insurance that has been approved by the federal government--
     or pay a fine. While Congress is granted the authority to 
     ``regulate commerce . . . among the several states,'' and the 
     Supreme Court has allowed Congress to regulate and prohibit 
     ``economic'' activities that are not, strictly speaking, 
     commerce, this is the first time in our nation's history that 
     Congress has sought to regulate inactivity. And for the first 
     time, Congress has mandated that individuals purchase a 
     private good, approved by the government, as the price of 
     citizenship. This requirement is plainly unconstitutional, 
     and, as Federal District Court Judge Henry Hudson recently 
     wrote in his opinion striking down the individual mandate, 
     ``is beyond the historical reach of the Commerce Clause.''