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Text: Finally, we address whether Section(s) 9201 and 9202(a) of OBRA, which amended respectively the ADEA and ERISA to prohibit age-based benefit accrual rules, apply retroactively.9 Two Terms ago, we set forth the proper approach for determining the retroactive effect of a statute in Landgraf v. USI Film Products, Inc., 511 U. S. __ (1994). We stated that "[w]hen a case implicates a federal statute enacted after the events in suit, the court's first task is to determine whether Congress has expressly prescribed the statute's proper reach." Id., at ___ (slip op., at 36). Thus, we must determine whether Congress has plainly delineated the temporal scope of the OBRA amendments to ERISA and the ADEA.

23
Section 9204(a)(1) of OBRA, 100 Stat. 1979, expressly provides that "[t]he amendments made by sections 9201 and 9202 shall apply only with respect to plan years beginning on or after January 1, 1988, and only to employees who have 1 hour of service in any plan year to which such amendments apply." 29 U. S. C. Section(s) 623 note. This language compels the conclusion that the amendments are prospective. For plan years that began on or after January 1, 1988, age-based accrual rules are unlawful under the amendments; further, only employees who have one hour of service in such a plan year are entitled to the protection of the amendments. But for plan years prior to the effective date, employers cannot be held liable for using age-based accrual rules. Where, as here, the temporal effect of a statute is manifest on its face, "there is no need to resort to judicial default rules," Landgraf v. USI Film Products, Inc., 511 U. S., at __ (slip op., at 36), and inquiry is at an end.

24
Notwithstanding the clarity of Section(s) 9204(a)(1), the Court of Appeals believed that the text of Section(s) 9201 and 9202(a) require retroactive application of the benefit accrual rules. To deny an employee credit for service years during which he was excluded from the plan based on age, even though that exclusion was lawful at the time, the Court of Appeals reasoned, is to reduce the rate of benefits accrual for that employee.10 60 F. 3d, at 620. When Congress includes a provision that specifically addresses the temporal effect of a statute, that provision trumps any general inferences that might be drawn from the substantive provisions of the statute. See generally Morales v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., 504 U. S. 374, 384 (1992); Fourco Glass Co. v. Transmirra Products Corp., 353 U. S. 222, 228-229 (1957). Even if it were proper to disregard the express time limitations in Section(s) 9204(a)(1) in favor of more general language, Section(s) 9201 and 9202(a) cannot bear the weight of the Court of Appeals' construction. A reduction in total benefits due is not the same thing as a reduction in the rate of benefit accrual; the former is the final outcome of the calculation, whereas the latter is one of the factors in the equation.

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The judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

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It is so ordered.