IV 
111TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. RES. 1063 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that a mandate imposed 
by the Federal Government requiring individuals to purchase health 
insurance is unconstitutional. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 3, 2010 
Mr. SULLIVAN (for himself, Mrs. BLACKBURN, Mr. ROONEY, Mr. LAMBORN, 
Mr. PRICE of Georgia, Mr. DUNCAN, Ms. JENKINS, Ms. FALLIN, Mr. 
AKIN, Mr. COLE, and Mr. WITTMAN) submitted the following resolution; 
which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 
RESOLUTION 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that 
a mandate imposed by the Federal Government requiring 
individuals to purchase health insurance is unconstitu-
tional. 
Whereas in 1994, the Congressional Budget Office wrote that 
a mandate requiring all individuals to purchase health in-
surance would be an unprecedented form of Federal ac-
tion; 
Whereas the Government has never required people to buy 
any good or service as a condition of lawful residence in 
the United States; 
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•HRES 1063 IH 
Whereas H.R. 3962 contains an individual health insurance 
mandate to purchase insurance or pay a tax as defined 
by the bureaucratic standards in the bill; 
Whereas the tax would constitute 2.5 percent of adjusted 
gross income, up to the amount of the national average 
premium through the Government-run health care ex-
change; 
Whereas the health care reform bills that have passed the 
House of Representatives and Senate require United 
States citizens to either secure or purchase health insur-
ance approved by the Federal Government or face a fi-
nancial penalty or even a possible prison sentence; 
Whereas nowhere in the Constitution is Congress given the 
power to mandate that an individual enter into a contract 
with a private party or purchase a good or service; 
Whereas the Supreme Court has never validated a Federal 
power as intrusive as forcing all United States citizens to 
purchase a service due to their very existence; 
Whereas to uphold the health insurance mandate contained 
in H.R. 3962, the Supreme Court would have to concede 
that the Commerce Clause of the Constitution has no 
limits, a proposition that it has always denied; 
Whereas the health insurance mandate does not purport to 
regulate or prohibit activity of any kind, whether eco-
nomic or noneconomic; 
Whereas to the contrary, it purports to regulate inactivity; 
Whereas the principal sponsors of the current bills before 
Congress have stated that the individual mandate requir-
ing United States citizens to buy inflated health insur-
ance policies is an essential part of their plan to nation-
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•HRES 1063 IH 
alize and subsidize much of the health care system in the 
United States; 
Whereas section 255 of H.R. 3962 and other unconstitutional 
provisions of the legislation will render the rest of the 
legislation unworkable; and 
Whereas Members of Congress are bound by their oath to up-
hold the Constitution, and thus, are duty bound to op-
pose unconstitutional provisions of legislation: Now, 
therefore, be it 
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep-
resentatives that— 
(1) a mandate imposed by the Federal Govern-
ment requiring individuals to purchase health insur-
ance is unconstitutional; 
(2) the individual health insurance mandate 
should be removed from all pending national health 
care legislation in Congress; and 
(3) all States should pass legislation protesting 
any Federal health insurance mandate requiring in-
dividuals to purchase Government-approved health 
insurance or pay a tax penalty. 
Æ 
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