Opinion ID: 175346
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 14

Heading: Immediacy Clause

Text: In the Omnibus Act, Congress orders the Corps to build the bridge immediately and without further delay. Like the notwithstanding clause, this immediacy clause also splits the verb phrase shall... construct. Our cases require us to read such simple English simply. In the absence of a statutory definition of a term, we look to the common usage of words for their meaning. CBS Inc. v. PrimeTime 24 Joint Venture, 245 F.3d 1217, 1222 (11th Cir.2001) (quotation omitted). The simplest reading of this plain language is that Congress wanted the bridge built now. Congress sought to facilitate this goal by repealing the environmental laws that it had previously passed. Allowing further administrative challenges to the bridge under those environmental laws, more than two decades after Congress passed legislation seeking to improve water flows in the Everglades, would further delay the speedy completion of the bridge and frustrate Congress's clear intent. In this way, the immediacy clause creates a direct conflict with the time-consuming administrative review mandated by the environmental laws, and therefore the environmental laws must yield. This finding of a conflict cements our conclusion that Congress effected a repeal here. We reach this conclusion without deciding the issue of whether finding a conflict is necessary for the operation of a general repealing clause.