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 re-
quirements contained in the Patient Protection and Af-
fordable Care Act. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protecting Volunteer 
Firefighters and Emergency Responders Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. EMERGENCY SERVICES, GOVERNMENT, AND CER-
TAIN NONPROFIT VOLUNTEERS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 4980H(c) of the Internal 
Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by redesignating para-
graphs (5), (6), and (7) as paragraphs (6), (7), and (8), 
respectively, and by inserting after paragraph (4) the fol-
lowing new paragraph: 
‘‘(5) SPECIAL RULES FOR CERTAIN EMERGENCY 
SERVICES, GOVERNMENT, AND NONPROFIT VOLUN-
TEERS.— 
‘‘(A) 
EMERGENCY
SERVICES
VOLUN-
TEERS.—Qualified services rendered as a bona 
fide volunteer to an eligible employer shall not 
be taken into account under this section as 
service provided by an employee. For purposes 
of the preceding sentence, the terms ‘qualified 
services’, ‘bona fide volunteer’, and ‘eligible em-
ployer’ shall have the respective meanings given 
such terms under section 457(e). 
‘‘(B) CERTAIN OTHER GOVERNMENT AND 
NONPROFIT VOLUNTEERS.— 
‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Services rendered 
as a bona fide volunteer to a specified em-
ployer shall not be taken into account 
under this section as service provided by 
an employee. 
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‘‘(ii) BONA
FIDE
VOLUNTEER.—For 
purposes of this subparagraph, the term 
‘bona fide volunteer’ means an employee of 
a specified employer whose only compensa-
tion from such employer is in the form 
of— 
‘‘(I) reimbursement for (or rea-
sonable allowance for) reasonable ex-
penses incurred in the performance of 
services by volunteers, or 
‘‘(II) reasonable benefits (includ-
ing length of service awards), and 
nominal fees, customarily paid by 
similar entities in connection with the 
performance of services by volunteers. 
‘‘(iii) 
SPECIFIED
EMPLOYER.—For 
purposes of this subparagraph, the term 
‘specified employer’ means— 
‘‘(I) any government entity, and 
‘‘(II) any organization described 
in section 501(c) and exempt from tax 
under section 501(a). 
‘‘(iv) COORDINATION WITH SUBPARA-
GRAPH (A).—This subparagraph shall not 
fail to apply with respect to services merely 
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because such services are qualified services 
(as defined in section 457(e)(11)(C)).’’. 
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 
this section shall apply to months beginning after Decem-
ber 31, 2013. 
Æ 
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