Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-1023_m64o.pdf
Page Number: 15.0

Cite as:  590 U. S. ____ (2020) 

11 

Opinion of the Court 

created  the  obligation  by  statute,  this  Court  held  that  a
subsequent  failure  to  appropriate  enough  funds  neither 
“abrogated [n]or suspended” the Government’s pre-existing 
commitment to pay.  Id., at 394.  The Court thus affirmed 
judgment for the officer for the balance owed.  Ibid.5 

The GAO shares this view.  As the Redbook explains, if 
Congress created an obligation by statute without detailing 
how  it  will  be  paid,  “an  agency  could  presumably  meet  a 
funding  shortfall  by  such  measures  as  making  prorated
payments.”  GAO Redbook 2–36, n. 39.  But “such actions 
would be only temporary pending receipt of sufficient funds 
to  honor  the  underlying  obligation”  and  “[t]he  recipient
would remain legally entitled to the balance.”  Ibid.  Thus, 
the GAO warns, although a “failure to appropriate” funds 
“will  prevent  administrative  agencies  from  making  pay-
ment,” that failure “is unlikely to prevent recovery by way
of a lawsuit.”  Id., at 2–63 (citing, e.g., Langston, 118 U. S., 
at 394).

Put succinctly, Congress can create an obligation directly

through statutory language. 

B 
Section  1342  imposed  a  legal  duty  of  the  United  States
that could mature into a legal liability through the insurers’ 
actions—namely,  their  participating  in  the  healthcare
exchanges.

This  conclusion  flows  from  §1342’s  express  terms  and 

—————— 

5 The  Government  suggests  that  Langston  is  irrelevant  because  that 
case predates the Judgment Fund, cf. n. 3, supra, meaning that the Court
“had no occasion” to determine whether the statute at issue “authorized 
a  money-damages  remedy”  against  the  Government,  Brief  for  United 
States 30.  But by affirming a judgment against the United States, Lang-
ston necessarily confirmed the Government’s obligation to pay independ-
ent of a specific appropriation.  What remedies ensure that the Govern-
ment makes good on its duty to pay is a separate question that we take 
up below.  See Part IV, infra.