I 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2177 
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to permit tax-free distributions 
from governmental retirement plans for premiums for health and long- 
term care insurance for public safety officers. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 5, 2005 
Mr. CHOCOLA (for himself, Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts, Mr. SHAW, Mr. 
MCCRERY, Mr. CAMP, Mr. RAMSTAD, Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas, Mr. 
ENGLISH of Pennsylvania, Mr. HAYWORTH, Mr. WELLER, Mr. LEWIS of 
Kentucky, Mr. FOLEY, Mr. BRADY of Texas, Mr. REYNOLDS, Mr. RYAN 
of Wisconsin, Mr. CANTOR, Mr. BEAUPREZ, Ms. HART, Mr. CARDIN, Mr. 
LEWIS of Georgia, Mr. MCNULTY, Mr. JEFFERSON, Mr. ACKERMAN, Mr. 
ALEXANDER, Mr. BACA, Mr. BACHUS, Mr. BISHOP of New York, Mr. 
BONILLA, Mr. BOOZMAN, Mr. BURTON of Indiana, Mr. BUYER, Mr. 
CARTER, Mr. CONAWAY, Mr. CULBERSON, Mr. CUNNINGHAM, Mr. DENT, 
Mr. FERGUSON, Mr. FORD, Mr. GALLEGLY, Mr. GARRETT of New Jer-
sey, Mr. GERLACH, Mr. GOODE, Mr. GORDON, Ms. HERSETH, Mr. HIG-
GINS, Mr. KENNEDY of Minnesota, Mr. KILDEE, Ms. KILPATRICK of 
Michigan, Mr. KLINE, Mr. LATHAM, Mr. LYNCH, Mrs. MCCARTHY, Mr. 
MCGOVERN, Mr. MCHUGH, Mrs. MILLER of Michigan, Mrs. MYRICK, Mr. 
NEUGEBAUER, Mr. PENCE, Mr. PITTS, Mr. PORTER, Mr. ROGERS of 
Michigan, Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD, Mr. SHADEGG, Mr. SHIMKUS, Mr. 
SMITH
of Washington, Mr. TERRY, Mr. THORNBERRY, Mr. VAN 
HOLLEN, and Mr. WILSON of South Carolina) 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 permit 
tax-free distributions from governmental retirement plans 
for premiums for health and long-term care insurance 
for public safety officers.
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 ‘‘Healthcare Enhance-
ment for Local Public Safety Retirees Act of 2005’’ or 
the ‘‘HELPS Retirees Act of 2005’’. 
SEC. 2. DISTRIBUTIONS FROM GOVERNMENTAL RETIRE-
MENT PLANS FOR HEALTH AND LONG-TERM 
CARE INSURANCE FOR PUBLIC SAFETY OFFI-
CERS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 402 of the Internal Rev-
enue Code of 1986 (relating to taxability of beneficiary 
of employees’ trust) is amended by adding at the end the 
following new subsection: 
‘‘(l) DISTRIBUTIONS FROM GOVERNMENTAL PLANS 
FOR HEALTH AND LONG-TERM CARE INSURANCE.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—In the case of an employee 
who is an eligible retired public safety officer who 
makes the election described in paragraph (6) with 
respect to any taxable year of such employee, gross 
income of such employee for such taxable year does 
not include any distribution from an eligible retire-
ment plan to the extent that the aggregate amount 
of such distributions does not exceed the amount 
paid by such employee for qualified health insurance
premiums of the employee, his spouse, or dependents 
(as defined in section 152) for such taxable year. 
‘‘(2) LIMITATION.—The amount which may be 
excluded from gross income for the taxable year by 
reason of paragraph (1) shall not exceed $5,000. 
‘‘(3) DISTRIBUTIONS MUST OTHERWISE BE IN-
CLUDIBLE.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—An amount shall be 
treated as a distribution for purposes of para-
graph (1) only to the extent that such amount 
would be includible in gross income without re-
gard to paragraph (1). 
‘‘(B) APPLICATION OF SECTION 72.—Not-
withstanding section 72, in determining the ex-
tent to which an amount is treated as a dis-
tribution for purposes of subparagraph (A), the 
aggregate amounts distributed from an eligible 
retirement plan in a taxable year shall be treat-
ed as includible in gross income (without regard 
to subparagraph (A)) to the extent that such 
amount does not exceed the aggregate amount 
which would have been so includible if all 
amounts distributed from all eligible retirement 
plans were treated as 1 contract for purposes of 
determining the inclusion of such distribution
under section 72. Proper adjustments shall be 
made in applying section 72 to other distribu-
tions in such taxable year and subsequent tax-
able years. 
‘‘(4) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this sub-
section— 
‘‘(A) ELIGIBLE RETIREMENT PLAN.—For 
purposes of paragraph (1), the term ‘eligible re-
tirement plan’ means a governmental plan 
(within the meaning of section 414(d)) which is 
described in clause (iii), (iv), (v), or (vi) of sub-
section (c)(8)(B). 
‘‘(B) ELIGIBLE RETIRED PUBLIC SAFETY 
OFFICER.—The term ‘eligible retired public 
safety officer’ means an individual who, by rea-
son of disability or attainment of normal retire-
ment age, is separated from service as a public 
safety officer with the employer who maintains 
the eligible retirement plan from which distribu-
tions subject to paragraph (1) are made. 
‘‘(C) PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICER.—The term 
‘public safety officer’ shall have the same mean-
ing given such term by section 1204(8)(A) of 
the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets 
Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3796b(8)(A)).