Opinion ID: 216847
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Congressional Approval or Acquiescence

Text: As a threshold matter, we consider whether, in adopting the 1987 amendments to the CWA, Congress sub silentio approved of, or acquiesced in, the Silvicultural Rule. We conclude that Congress did not. In some instances, congressional re-enactment of statutes can be persuasive evidence of approval of longstanding administrative regulations promulgated under that statute. In NLRB v. Bell Aerospace Co., 416 U.S. 267, 274-75, 94 S.Ct. 1757, 40 L.Ed.2d 134 (1974), the Court wrote, [A] court may accord great weight to the longstanding interpretation placed on a statute by an agency charged with its administration. This is especially so where Congress has re-enacted the statute without pertinent change. In these circumstances, congressional failure to revise or repeal the agency's interpretation is persuasive evidence that the interpretation is the one intended by Congress. See also Commodity Futures Trading Comm'n v. Schor, 478 U.S. 833, 846, 106 S.Ct. 3245, 92 L.Ed.2d 675 (1986) (quoting and paraphrasing Bell Aerospace ). But this case is very different from Bell Aerospace and Schor. First, in both Bell Aerospace and Schor, the legislative histories made clear that when Congress re-enacted the statutes at issue it was well aware of the existing administrative interpretation of the statutes. Here, by contrast, there is no indication that Congress was aware of the Silvicultural Rule when it adopted the 1987 amendments. There is no mention of, or even allusion to, the Rule anywhere in the legislative history of the amendments. Second, in both Bell Aerospace and Schor, the relevant portions of the statutes at issue were re-enacted essentially without change. Here, as we explain below, the 1987 amendments fundamentally changed the statutory treatment of stormwater discharges. Third, the language of the original and the re-enacted statutes in both Bell Aerospace and Schor was readily susceptible to the administrative interpretations of those statutes. Here, by contrast, the relevant statutory language is flatly inconsistent with the Silvicultural Rule. In other instances, congressional action or inaction can constitute acquiescence in an existing regulation. The Supreme Court has cautioned strongly against finding congressional acquiescence. In Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 531 U.S. 159, 162, 121 S.Ct. 675, 148 L.Ed.2d 576 (2001), it wrote, Although we have recognized congressional acquiescence to administrative interpretations of a statute in some circumstances, we have done so with extreme care. After discussing a case in which there had been congressional hearings on the precise issue, and in which thirteen bills had been introduced in unsuccessful attempts to overturn the regulation, the Court wrote, Absent such overwhelming evidence of acquiescence, we are loath to replace the plain text and original understanding of a statute with an amended agency interpretation. Id. at 169-70, n. 5, 121 S.Ct. 675. Here, there is no evidence whatsoever of congressional acquiescence in the Silvicultural Rule, let alone overwhelming evidence.