Cite as: 531 U. S. 230 (2001)
Opinion of the Court
F. 3d 442, 447 (CA4 1999); Venegas v. Henman, 126 F. 3d 760, 763 (CA5 1997).
This split among the Circuits prompted the Bureau in 1997 to publish the regulation now before the Court. See 62 Fed. Reg. 53690-53691. Like the 1995 rule, the current regulation excludes from early release eligibility offenders who possessed a firearm in connection with their offenses. In contrast to the earlier rule, however, the 1997 regulation does not order this exclusion by defining the statutory term "prisoner convicted of a nonviolent offense" or the cognate term "crimes of violence." Instead, the current regulation relies upon "the discretion allotted to the Director of the Bureau of Prisons in granting a sentence reduction to exclude [enumerated categories of] inmates." Id., at 53690. The regulation, designed to achieve consistent administration of the incentive, now provides:
"(a) Additional early release criteria. (1) As an exercise of the discretion vested in the Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the following categories of inmates are not eligible for early release:
. . . . . "(iv) Inmates who have a prior felony or misdemeanor conviction for homicide, forcible rape, robbery, or aggravated assault, or child sexual abuse offenses;
. . . . . "(vi) Inmates whose current offense is a felony:
. . . . . "(B) That involved the carrying, possession, or use of a firearm or other dangerous weapon . . . ." 28 CFR § 550.58(a) (2000).
In sum, the 1995 rule defined the statutory term "prisoner convicted of a nonviolent offense" to exclude categorically an inmate who possessed a firearm in connection with his offense. The current regulation categorically excludes such an inmate, not because § 3621(e)(2)(B) so mandates, but pur-
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