440
Opinion of the Court
in order to impose a new obligation of complying either with the current § 2 or with subsections (b)(3) and (b)(5). Instead, Congress enacted an entirely separate statute deeming compliance with subsections (b)(3) and (b)(5) to constitute compliance with § 2—a "modification" of the MBTA, we conclude, through operation of the canon that specific provisions qualify general ones, see, e. g., Simpson v. United States, 435 U. S. 6, 15 (1978). As explained above, each formulation would have produced an identical task for a court adjudicating the MBTA claims—determining either that the challenged harvesting did not violate § 2 as currently written or that it did not violate subsections (b)(3) and (b)(5).
Finally, respondents emphasize that subsection (b)(6)(A) explicitly made reference to pending cases identified by name and caption number. The reference to Seattle Audubon and Portland Audubon, however, served only to identify the five "statutory requirements that are the basis for" those cases— namely, pertinent provisions of MBTA, NEPA, NFMA, FLPMA, and OCLA. Subsection (b)(6)(A) named two pending cases in order to identify five statutory provisions. To the extent that subsection (b)(6)(A) affected the adjudication of the cases, it did so by effectively modifiying the provisions at issue in those cases.
In the alternative, the Ninth Circuit held that subsection (b)(6)(A) "could not" effect an implied modification of substantive law because it was embedded in an appropriations measure. See 914 F. 2d, at 1317. This reasoning contains several errors. First, although repeals by implication are especially disfavored in the appropriations context, see, e. g., TVA v. Hill, 437 U. S. 153, 190 (1978), Congress nonetheless may amend substantive law in an appropriations statute, as long as it does so clearly. See, e. g., United States v. Will, 449 U. S. 200, 222 (1980). Second, because subsection (b)(6)(A) provided by its terms that compliance with certain new law constituted compliance with certain old law, the intent to modify was not only clear, but express. Third,
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