I 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1991 

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to ensure that emergency 

services volunteers are not taken into account as employees under the 

shared responsibility requirements contained in the Patient Protection 

and Affordable Care Act. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 6, 2017 

Mr. BARLETTA introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Ways and Means 

A BILL 

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to ensure 

that emergency services volunteers are not taken into 

account as employees under the shared responsibility requirements contained in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protecting Volunteer 

5 Firefighters and Emergency Responders Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. EMERGENCY SERVICES, GOVERNMENT, AND CER2 TAIN NONPROFIT VOLUNTEERS. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 4980H(c) of the Internal 

4 Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by redesignating para5 graphs (5), (6), and (7) as paragraphs (6), (7), and (8), 

6 respectively, and by inserting after paragraph (4) the fol7 lowing new paragraph: 

8 ‘‘(5) SPECIAL RULES FOR CERTAIN EMERGENCY

9 SERVICES, GOVERNMENT, AND NONPROFIT VOLUN10 TEERS.— 

11 ‘‘(A) EMERGENCY SERVICES VOLUN12 TEERS.—Qualified services rendered as a bona 

13 fide volunteer to an eligible employer shall not 

14 be taken into account under this section as 

15 service provided by an employee. For purposes 

16 of the preceding sentence, the terms ‘qualified 

17 services’, ‘bona fide volunteer’, and ‘eligible em18 ployer’ shall have the respective meanings given 

19 such terms under section 457(e). 

20 ‘‘(B) CERTAIN OTHER GOVERNMENT AND

21 NONPROFIT VOLUNTEERS.— 

22 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Services rendered 

23 as a bona fide volunteer to a specified em24 ployer shall not be taken into account 

25 under this section as service provided by 

26 an employee. 


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1 ‘‘(ii) BONA FIDE VOLUNTEER.—For 

2 purposes of this subparagraph, the term 

3 ‘bona fide volunteer’ means an employee of 

4 a specified employer whose only compensa5 tion from such employer is in the form 

6 of— 

7 ‘‘(I) reimbursement for (or rea8 sonable allowance for) reasonable ex9 penses incurred in the performance of 

10 services by volunteers, or 

11 ‘‘(II) reasonable benefits (includ12 ing length of service awards), and 

13 nominal fees, customarily paid by 

14 similar entities in connection with the 

15 performance of services by volunteers. 

16 ‘‘(iii) SPECIFIED EMPLOYER.—For 

17 purposes of this subparagraph, the term 

18 ‘specified employer’ means— 

19 ‘‘(I) any government entity, and 

20 ‘‘(II) any organization described 

21 in section 501(c) and exempt from tax 

22 under section 501(a). 

23 ‘‘(iv) COORDINATION WITH SUBPARA24 GRAPH (A).—This subparagraph shall not 

25 fail to apply with respect to services merely 


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1 because such services are qualified services 

2 (as defined in section 457(e)(11)(C)).’’. 

3 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 

4 this section shall apply to months beginning after Decem5 ber 31, 2013. 

Æ 


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