Cite as: 525 U. S. 459 (1999)
Opinion of the Court
direct or indirect." Id., at 564 (internal quotation marks omitted).
In Paralyzed Veterans, 477 U. S., at 603-612, we considered the scope of § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U. S. C. § 794, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in substantially the same terms that Title IX uses to prohibit sex discrimination. In that case, a group representing disabled veterans contended that the Department of Transportation had authority to enforce § 504 against commercial air carriers by virtue of the Government's extensive program of financial assistance to airports. We held that airlines are not recipients of federal funds received by airport operators for airport construction projects, even when the funds are used for projects especially beneficial to the airlines. Application of § 504 to all who benefited economically from federal assistance, we observed, would yield almost "limitless coverage." 477 U. S., at 608. We concluded that "[t]he statute covers those who receive the aid, but does not extend as far as those who benefit from it." Id., at 607.5
The Court of Appeals determined "not [to] apply the Paralyzed Veterans Court's definition of 'recipient' to Title IX," 139 F. 3d, at 189, finding that definition inconsistent with 34 CFR § 106.2 (1997), a Title IX regulation issued by the
5 Smith suggests that Paralyzed Veterans does not control the question presented here because that case involved a Government enforcement action while this is a private suit. This argument hinges on Smith's position that the private right of action available under 20 U. S. C. § 1681(a) is potentially broader than the Government's enforcement authority provided by § 1682. We reject this position. There is no express authorization for private lawsuits in Title IX; in Cannon v. University of Chicago, 441 U. S. 677, 717 (1979), we concluded that Congress had intended to authorize a private right of action even though it failed to do so expressly. We think it would be anomalous to assume that Congress intended the implied private right of action to proscribe conduct that Government enforcement may not check. See 20 U. S. C. § 1682 (authorizing federal administrative enforcement by terminating the federal funding of any noncomplying recipient, § 1682(1), or "by any other means authorized by law," § 1682(2)).
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