Court Opinion

ID: 9478545
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 06:51:52.816334+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:46:29.373775
License: Public Domain

BREYER, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
I concur for two reasons. First, several other courts have issued opinions that support the panel’s decision. See Vanscoter v. Bowen, No. C86-1568WD, slip op. at 5 (W.D.Wash.1988); Beasley v. Harris, 671 F.Supp. 911 (D.Conn.1987); Humble v. Department of Public Aid, 165 Ill.App.3d 624, 116 Ill.Dec. 509, 512, 519 N.E.2d 99, 102 (1988); see also Golden v. Department of Public Aid, 150 Ill.App.3d 617, 103 Ill.Dec. 473, 477, 501 N.E.2d 790, 794 (1986). Second, a contrary decision would not significantly affect AFDC law. Congress has recently enacted legislation that, for the future, adopts the Secretary’s view. The $50 “pass through” will apply to a monthly child support payment only if the absent parent makes it in the month when it is due. Family Support Act of 1988, Pub.L. No. 100-485, § 102; see also S.Rep. No. 100-377, 100th Cong., 2d Sess. at 17 (1988); H.R.Rep. No. 100-998, 100th Cong., 2d Sess. at 98 (1988) U.S.Code Cong. & Admin. News pp. 2776, 2794, 2886 (“Joint Explanatory Statement of the Committee of Conference”).
Were it not for these special features, making it pointless, and somewhat inappropriate, to dissent, I should do so. The Secretary says that Congress wanted to treat AFDC families with similar needs similarly; that an absent parent’s support payments should not make one such family better off than another; and that Congress made only a small exception, to the extent of $50 when an absent parent makes a child support payment on time. This principle, says the Secretary, explains the opaque statutory language. And, the Secretary’s view is a reasonable one.
In a case like this one, where the statutory provision is minor and interstitial, *927where the agency has a firm understanding of the relationship of that provision to other, more important, provisions of the statute, and where that understanding grows out of both the agency’s daily experience in administering its statute and its familiarity with the initial legislative drafting process, the Secretary’s argument has considerable “power to persuade.” Skidmore v. Swift & Co., 323 U.S. 134, 140, 65 S.Ct. 161, 164, 89 L.Ed. 124 (1944). And, I should think, were it not for the two special features of this case mentioned above that we should follow his interpretation. Chevron, USA, Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. at 844-45, 104 S.Ct. at 2782-83 (1984); Mayburg v. Secretary of Health and Human Services, 740 F.2d 100, 105-06 (1st Cir.1984).