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Opinion of the Court
vate sector discrimination); Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, 86 Stat. 111, 42 U. S. C. § 2000e-16 (federal sector discrimination).
Section 717's language, however, does not freeze the scope of the word "appropriate" as of 1972. Words in statutes can enlarge or contract their scope as other changes, in law or in the world, require their application to new instances or make old applications anachronistic. See, e. g., Browder v. United States, 312 U. S. 335, 339-340 (1941) (new, unforeseen "use" of passport); see also United States v. Southwestern Cable Co., 392 U. S. 157, 172-173 (1968) (cable television as "communications"); Fortnightly Corp. v. United Artists Television, Inc., 392 U. S. 390, 395-396 (1968) (old statutory language read to reflect technological change).
The meaning of the word "appropriate" permits its scope to expand to include Title VII remedies that were not appropriate before 1991, but in light of legal change are appropriate now. The word "including" makes clear that "appropriate remedies" are not limited to the examples that follow that word. See Phelps Dodge Corp. v. NLRB, 313 U. S. 177, 189 (1941). And in context the word "appropriate" most naturally refers to forms of relief that Title VII itself author-izes—at least where that relief is of a kind that agencies typically can provide. Thus, Congress' decision in the 1991 CDA to permit a "complaining party" to "recover compensatory damages" in "an action brought under section . . . 717," by adding compensatory damages to Title VII's arsenal of remedies, could make that form of relief "appropriate" under § 717(b) as well.
An examination of the purposes of the 1972 Title VII extension shows that this permissible reading of the language is also the correct reading. Section 717's general purpose is to remedy discrimination in federal employment. It does so in part by creating a dispute resolution system that requires a complaining party to pursue administrative relief prior to
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