Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/22-506_nmip.pdf
Page Number: 18

Cite as:  600 U. S. ____ (2023) 

13 

Opinion of the Court 

A 
The HEROES Act authorizes the Secretary to “waive or 
modify any statutory or regulatory provision applicable to 
the student financial assistance programs under title IV of 
the  [Education  Act]  as  the  Secretary  deems  necessary  in
connection  with  a  war  or  other  military  operation  or  na-
tional emergency.”  20 U. S. C. §1098bb(a)(1).  That power 
has limits.  To begin with, statutory permission to “modify”
does not authorize “basic and fundamental changes in the 
scheme” designed by Congress.  MCI Telecommunications 
Corp.  v.  American  Telephone  &  Telegraph  Co.,  512  U. S. 
218, 225 (1994).  Instead, that term carries “a connotation 
of increment or limitation,” and must be read to mean “to 
change moderately or in minor fashion.”  Ibid.  That is how 
the word is ordinarily used.  See, e.g., Webster’s Third New 
International Dictionary 1952 (2002) (defining “modify” as
“to make more temperate and less extreme,” “to limit or re-
strict  the  meaning  of,”  or  “to  make  minor  changes  in  the 
form or structure of [or] alter without transforming”).  The 
legal definition is no different.  Black’s Law Dictionary 1203
(11th  ed.  2019)  (giving  the  first  definition  of  “modify”  as
“[t]o make somewhat different; to make small changes to,”
and the second as “[t]o make more moderate or less sweep-
ing”).  The  authority  to  “modify”  statutes  and  regulations
allows the Secretary to make modest adjustments and ad-
ditions to existing provisions, not transform them. 

The Secretary’s previous invocations of the HEROES Act
illustrate  this  point.  Prior  to  the  COVID–19  pandemic,
“modifications” issued under the Act implemented only mi-
nor changes, most of which were procedural.  Examples in-
clude reducing the number of tax forms borrowers are re-
quired  to  file,  extending  time  periods  in  which  borrowers
must  take  certain  actions,  and  allowing  oral  rather  than
written authorizations.  See 68 Fed. Reg. 69314–69316.

Here, the Secretary purported to “modif[y] the provisions 
of ”  two  statutory  sections  and  three  related  regulations