Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-1023_m64o.pdf
Page Number: 17.0

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

13 

Opinion of the Court 

tial payment would satisfy the Government’s whole obliga-
tion.  Thus, without “any indication” that §1342 allows the 
Government to lessen its obligation, we must “give effect to
[Section 1342’s] plain command.”  Lexecon, 523 U. S., at 35. 
That  is,  the  statute  meant  what  it  said:  The  Government 
“shall pay” the sum that §1342 prescribes.6 

C 
The  Government  does  not  contest  that  §1342’s  plain
terms  appeared  to  create  an  obligation  to  pay  whatever
amount the statutory formula provides.  It insists instead 
that  the  Appropriations  Clause,  Art.  I,  §9,  cl. 7,  and  the 
Anti-Deficiency Act, 31 U. S. C. §1341, “qualified” that obli-
gation by making “HHS’s payments contingent on appropri-
ations by Congress.”  Brief for United States 20.  “Because 
Congress  did  not  appropriate  funds  beyond  the  amounts
collected” from profitable plans, this argument goes, “HHS’s
statutory duty [to pay unprofitable plans] extended only to 
disbursing those collected amounts.”  Id., at 24–25. 

That does not follow.  Neither the Appropriations Clause 
nor the Anti-Deficiency Act addresses whether Congress it-
self  can  create  or  incur  an  obligation  directly  by  statute. 
Rather,  both  provisions  constrain  how  federal  employees
and officers may make or authorize payments without ap-
propriations.  See U. S. Const., Art. I, §9, cl. 7 (requiring an
“Appropriatio[n]  made  by  Law”  before  money  may  “be 
drawn”  to  satisfy  a  payment  obligation);  31  U. S. C.
§1341(a)(1)(A)  (“[A]n  officer  or  employee  of  the  United 

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6 Our conclusion matches the interpretations that HHS and CMS have 
repeated since before the Risk Corridors program began.  In the agencies’ 
view,  the  Risk  Corridors  program  was  “not  statutorily  required  to  be 
budget  neutral”  and  instead  required  HHS  to  “remit  payments” 
“[r]egardless  of  the  balance  of  payments  and  receipts.”    78  Fed.  Reg.
15473  (HHS  regulation);  accord,  79  Fed.  Reg.  30260  (CMS  regulation
noting that even “[i]n the unlikely event of a shortfall for the 2015 pro-
gram year, . . . the Affordable Care Act requires the Secretary to make 
full payments to issuers”).