Opinion ID: 628601
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: NCTA Doctrine

Text: 34 Before turning to the relevant statutory language, it is necessary for us to determine what standard should be used in examining that language. Defendants argue that in order for us to find that oversight costs are recoverable, there must be a clear congressional intent, reflected in the language of the statute, to impose upon a party oversight costs incurred by EPA. In support of this proposition, they rely on National Cable Television Ass'n, Inc. v. United States, 415 U.S. 336, 342, 94 S.Ct. 1146, 1149-50, 39 L.Ed.2d 370 (1974), a case later interpreted by the Supreme Court as standing for the proposition that Congress must indicate clearly its intention to delegate to the Executive the discretionary authority to recover administrative costs not inuring directly to the benefit of regulated parties by imposing additional financial burdens, whether characterized as 'fees' or 'taxes,' on those parties. Skinner v. Mid-America Pipeline Co., 490 U.S. 212, 224, 109 S.Ct. 1726, 1734, 104 L.Ed.2d 250 (1989); see also FEA v. Algonquin SNG, Inc., 426 U.S. 548, 559 n. 10, 96 S.Ct. 2295, 2302 n. 10, 49 L.Ed.2d 49 (1976). 35 The oversight costs here at issue are costs incurred by the government in monitoring private parties' compliance with their legal obligations. Moreover, this oversight is intended to protect the public interest rather than the interests of those being overseen. Thus, the oversight costs involved here are administrative costs of the kind discussed in NCTA, i.e., administrative costs not inuring directly to the benefit of regulated parties but rather to the public at large. Accordingly, defendants contend that a clear statement of congressional intent is required for EPA to recover. The government, 11 however, contends that the NCTA doctrine is inapplicable here because NCTA involved a narrow and distinguishable set of circumstances, namely: an agency's prescription, by regulation, of a fee for services absent a congressional delegation of taxing authority and absent proof that the regulated parties received agency services. U.S. Br. at 16. 36 Although NCTA involved circumstances somewhat different from those now presented to us, 12 neither the rationale of NCTA nor the statement in Skinner 13 is confined to that narrow set of circumstances. We believe the guiding principle of NCTA to be a sound one, particularly as applied in this case. The budget and appropriation process gives executive agencies an incentive to operate efficiently and makes them accountable to the Congress. When an agency asserts the right to secure financing of its activities by assessing its costs against those whom it regulates, that incentive and accountability are lost. Moreover, in the present context, recognition of the authority EPA asserts could result in the funding for a substantial amount of EPA activity, undertaken under a variety of different statutes, being shifted away from general revenue to specific levies on certain private parties. While it is not the role of the judiciary to determine whether such a change constitutes wise public policy, it is our duty to ascertain congressional intent behind statutory language. We will not presume Congress to have intended a statute to create the dramatic and unusual effect of requiring regulated parties to pay a large share of the administrative costs incurred by the overseeing agency unless the statutory language clearly and explicitly requires that result. 14 Thus, EPA can only prevail if the statutory definition of removal unambiguously allows for the government to recover the oversight costs it here seeks. 37