Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985

Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985
Long title	An Act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to section 2 of the first current resolution on the budget for fiscal year 1986
Acronyms (colloquial)	COBRA
Announced in	the 99th United States Congress
Citations
Public law	99-272
Statutes at Large	100 Stat. 82
Codification
Acts affected	Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974
Legislative history
	Introduced in the House of Representatives as H.R. 3128 by Daniel Rostenkowski (D–IL) on July 31, 1985; Committee consideration by House Committee on Ways and Means, United States House Committee on Education and Labor, United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce, House Committee on the Judiciary, Senate Committee on Finance; Passed the House of Representatives on October 31, 1985 (238-183 with amendment); Passed the Senate on November 14, 1985 (93-6); Reported by the joint conference committee on December 19, 1985; agreed to by the Senate on December 19, 1985 (78-1) and by the House on March 20, 1986 (230-154); Signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on April 7, 1986;

The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA) is a law passed by the U.S. Congress on a reconciliation basis and signed by President Ronald Reagan that, among other things, mandates an insurance program which gives some employees the ability to continue health insurance coverage after leaving employment. COBRA includes amendments to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). The law deals with a great variety of subjects, such as tobacco price supports, railroads, private pension plans, emergency department treatment, disability insurance, and the postal service, but it is perhaps best known for Title X, which amends the Internal Revenue Code and the Public Health Service Act to deny income tax deductions to employers (generally those with 20 or more full-time equivalent employees) for contributions to a group health plan unless such plan meets certain continuing coverage requirements. The violation for failing to meet those criteria was subsequently changed to an excise tax.

Although this statute became law on April 7, 1986, its official name is the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (Pub. L. 99–272, 100 Stat. 82). Because of the discrepancy between the official name of the Act and the year in which it was enacted,^[1] some government publications refer to the Act as the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1986.

^ Discrepancies between the date in the official title of a U.S. budget Act and the date on which the Act was signed into law occur with some frequency. See, for example, the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, signed into law in February 2006.

[1] Discrepancies between the date in the official title of a U.S. budget Act and the date on which the Act was signed into law occur with some frequency. See, for example, the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, signed into law in February 2006.

[1]