Cite as: 528 U. S. 62 (2000)
Opinion of the Court
otherwise in § 626(b)'s proviso. See § 626(b) ("The provisions of this chapter shall be enforced in accordance with the powers, remedies, and procedures provided in sectio[n] . . . 216 (except for subsection (a) thereof) . . . and subsection (c) of this section" (emphasis added)). We fail to see how the interpretation suggested by Justice Thomas, under which § 626(b) would carry over only those § 216(b) "embellishments" not already provided for in § 626(c)(1) except for the authorization of suits against States, see post, at 106, could be a permissible one. To accept that interpretation, for example, one would have to conclude that Congress intended to incorporate only the portion of § 216(b)'s third sentence that provides for collective actions, but not the part of the very same sentence that authorizes suits against States. See § 216(b) ("An action to recover the liability prescribed in either of the preceding sentences may be maintained against any employer (including a public agency) in any Federal or State court of competent jurisdiction by any one or more employees for and in behalf of himself or themselves and other employees similarly situated").
Justice Thomas also concludes that § 216(b) itself fails the clear statement test. Post, at 108-109. As we have already explained, the presence of the word "competent" in § 216(b) does not render that provision less than "unmistakably clear." See supra, at 75-76. Justice Thomas' reliance on a single phrase from our decision in Employees of Dept. of Public Health and Welfare of Mo. v. Department of Public Health and Welfare of Mo., 411 U. S. 279 (1973), see post, at 108, as support for the contrary proposition is puzzling, given his separate argument with respect to § 6(d)(2)(A) of the 1974 Act. Crucial to Justice Thomas' argument on that front is his acknowledgment that Congress did intend in the 1974 amendments to permit "FLSA plaintiffs who had been frustrated by state defendants' invocation of Eleventh Amendment immunity under Employees to avail themselves of the newly amended § 216(b)." Post, at 103;
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