Opinion ID: 184357
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Implied Limits on the Secretary's Section 322(b)

Text: Authority 36 The conclusion that section 2104(a) necessarily limits the Secretary's section 322(b) delegation authority is also buttressed by the holding in United States v. Giordano, 416 U.S. 505, 514, 94 S.Ct. 1820, 1826, 40 L.Ed.2d 341 (1974). In Giordano, a pre-Chevron case, the Supreme Court faced a question much like the one presented here: How to construe two grants of delegation authority--a broad one and a specific one--so as to give effect to the Congress's intent in enacting each. The Court held that although the Attorney General possesses general delegation authority under 28 U.S.C. § 510, that section does not authorize him to expand the specific delegation permitted by 18 U.S.C. § 2516(1), providing that [t]he Attorney General, or any Assistant Attorney General specially designated by the Attorney General, may authorize an application for wiretap authority. 416 U.S. at 513-14, 94 S.Ct. at 1825-26. In other words, the Court held that although section 2516(1) does not expressly proscribe delegation of the wiretap authority to the Attorney General's Executive Assistant, it appears wholly at odds with the scheme and history of the Act to construe § 2516(1) to permit the Attorney General to delegate his authority at will, whether it be to his Executive Assistant or to any officer in the Department other than an Assistant Attorney General. Id. at 523, 94 S.Ct. at 1830. 37 Like the provisions at issue in Giordano, section 2104(a) is more specific than section 322(b) and, although it does not expressly prohibit use of the Secretary's section 322(b) authority, its language and legislative history manifest the Congress's intent to limit the individuals to whom Subtitle II powers and duties--which involve primarily maritime safety and commerce--may be delegated. Accordingly, we reach the same conclusion here that the Supreme Court reached in Giordano: section 2104(a), the more specific (and limited) delegation authority, precludes the use of section 322(b) to delegate Subtitle II duties and powers to non-Coast Guard officials. 38 [327 U.S.App.D.C. 106] Finally, construing section 322(b) in this fashion also gives effect to the Congress's evident intent to circumscribe the Corporation's operations within narrow geographic and functional boundaries. In other words, the Corporation's charter--relating to the construct[ion] ... operat[ion] and maint[enance] of deep-water navigation works in specified portions of the Saint Lawrence River--necessarily limits the Secretary's section 322(b) authority. See Ashwood Manor Civic Ass'n v. Dole, 619 F.Supp. 52, 65-69 (E.D.Pa.) (concluding that even though section 322(b) gives Secretary broad authority to delegate agency powers and duties, scope may be limited by nature of power delegated as well as by delegatee's ability to exercise such authority), aff'd without pub. op., 779 F.2d 41 (3d Cir.1985), cert. denied, 475 U.S. 1082, 106 S.Ct. 1460, 89 L.Ed.2d 717 (1986); cf. Gomez v. United States, 490 U.S. 858, 864, 109 S.Ct. 2237, 2241, 104 L.Ed.2d 923 (1989) (When a statute creates an office to which it assigns specific duties, those duties outline the attributes of the office. Any additional duties performed pursuant to a general authorization in the statute reasonably should bear some relation to the specified duties.). 39 While the trial court erred in not applying Chevron step one to both sections, we do not mean to suggest that the error lies in not using the identical Chevron step with respect to both. Rather, we conclude that Chevron step one requires that the plain language of sections 2104(a) and 322(b) be read together so as to give effect to the Congress's evident intent in enacting both. See Engine Mfrs. Ass'n, 88 F.3d at 1088 ([If] scope of the authorization ... is clear in the statute, the scope of the implied preemption can be resolved at Chevron step one.). Both the Secretary and the district court failed to so read them. And even if section 322(b)'s scope is ambiguous, requiring recourse to Chevron step two, we would be compelled to reject the Secretary's interpretation as unreasonable because it would deprive [section 2104(a) ] of virtually all effect. American Fed'n of Gov't Employees v. FLRA, 798 F.2d 1525, 1528 (D.C.Cir.1986). If no legislative history of exceptional clarity exists to support such a construction, we have consistently refused to do so. Id. (internal quotation marks omitted).