Cite as: 522 U. S. 448 (1998)
Scalia, J., dissenting
porting period, and the average amount of those costs attributable to each full-time-equivalent resident."
It is impossible to imagine, moreover, how the words "recognized as" found their way into the provision unless they were meant to refer to the recognition of reasonableness already made under the pre-existing system. The interpretation that the Court accepts treats them "essentially as surplusage—as words of no consequence," Ratzlaf v. United States, 510 U. S. 135, 140-141 (1994), which, of course, we avoid when possible.
"We are not at liberty to construe any statute so as to deny effect to any part of its language. It is a cardinal rule of statutory construction that significance and effect shall, if possible, be accorded to every word. As early as in Bacon's Abridgment, sect. 2, it was said that 'a statute ought, upon the whole, to be so construed that, if it can be prevented, no clause, sentence, or word shall be superfluous, void, or insignificant.' This rule has been repeated innumerable times." Market Co. v. Hoffman, 101 U. S. 112, 115-116 (1879).
See also United States v. Nordic Village, Inc., 503 U. S. 30, 36 (1992); Federal Election Comm'n v. National Conservative Political Action Comm., 470 U. S. 480, 486 (1985). If § 1395ww(h)(2)(A) conferred a new cost-determination authority upon the Secretary, to be exercised in the future, it would have sufficed (and would have been normal) to direct the Secretary "to determine, for the hospital's cost reporting period that began during fiscal year 1984, the average amount recognized as reasonable under this subchapter for direct [GME] costs of the hospital for each full-time-equivalent resident." The specification of an amount "recognized as reasonable under this subchapter" only makes sense as a reference to a determination made (or to be made) independent of § 1395ww(h)(2)(A) itself—i. e., to the amount "rec-
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