34
Opinion of the Court
Department of Veterans Affairs, 498 U. S. 89, 95 (1990) (quoting United States v. Mitchell, 445 U. S. 535, 538 (1980), and United States v. King, 395 U. S. 1, 4 (1969)). Contrary to respondent's suggestion, moreover, they are not generally to be "liberally construed." We have on occasion narrowly construed exceptions to waivers of sovereign immunity where that was consistent with Congress' clear intent, as in the context of the "sweeping language" of the Federal Tort Claims Act, United States v. Yellow Cab Co., 340 U. S. 543, 547 (1951), see, e. g., id., at 554-555, Block v. Neal, 460 U. S. 289, 298 (1983), United States v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co., 338 U. S. 366, 383 (1949), or as in the context of equally broad "sue and be sued" clauses, see, e. g., Franchise Tax Bd. of California v. United States Postal Service, 467 U. S. 512, 517-519 (1984), FHA v. Burr, supra, at 245. These cases do not, however, eradicate the traditional principle that the Government's consent to be sued "must be 'construed strictly in favor of the sovereign,' McMahon v. United States, 342 U. S. 25, 27 (1951), and not 'enlarge[d] . . . beyond what the language requires,' " Ruckelshaus v. Sierra Club, 463 U. S. 680, 685 (1983) (quoting Eastern Transportation Co. v. United States, 272 U. S. 675, 686 (1927)), a rule of construction that we have had occasion to reaffirm once already this Term, see Ardestani v. INS, 502 U. S. 129, 137 (1991).
Subsections (a) and (b) of § 106 meet this "unequivocal expression" requirement with respect to monetary liability. Addressing "claim[s]," which the Code defines as "right[s] to payment," § 101(4)(A), they plainly waive sovereign immunity with regard to monetary relief in two settings: compulsory counterclaims to governmental claims, § 106(a); and permissive counterclaims to governmental claims capped by a setoff limitation, § 106(b). Next to these models of clarity stands subsection (c). Though it, too, waives sovereign immunity, it fails to establish unambiguously that the waiver extends to monetary claims. It is susceptible of at least two interpretations that do not authorize monetary relief.
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