Cite as: 503 U. S. 569 (1992)
Opinion of the Court
the 1899 Act were §§ 7 and 10 of the 1890 River and Harbor Appropriation Act, Act of Sept. 19, 1890, 26 Stat. 454-455. Section 10 prohibited creation of "any obstruction, not affirmatively authorized by law, to the navigable capacity of any waters, in respect of which the United States has jurisdiction," and § 7 made unlawful the building of any "wharf, pier, . . . or structure of any kind outside established harbor-lines . . . without the permission of the Secretary of War." Ibid. Congress slightly amended the statute in 1892 to add a prohibition on any construction that would "in any manner . . . alter or modify the course, location, condition or capacity of any port, roadstead, haven, harbor, harbor of refuge, or inclosure . . . unless approved and authorized by the Secretary of War." 1892 Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Act, Act of July 13, 1892, § 3, 27 Stat. 110. This statute reflected the reality that Congress could not itself attend to each such project individually, as it had from the earliest days of the Republic. As the House Report accompanying this law observed: "The most important feature of the bill now presented is the extent it goes in authorizing the Secretary of War to make contracts for the completion of some of the more important works of river and harbor improvement." H. R. Rep. No. 967, 52d Cong., 1st Sess., 2 (1892). "The departure from the old driblet system of appropriations," the House Report continued, "was found to work so well that your committee determined to apply it on a larger scale than in the last act." Ibid. See also S. Rep. No. 666, 52d Cong., 1st Sess., 4-5 (1892). By the time Congress passed the 1899 Act, therefore, the idea of delegating authority to the Secretary was well established even if the explanations for the broad language employed by Congress to carry out such a directive were sparse.
B
The substance of the RHA has been unchanged since its enactment, and the Court has had only a few occasions to decide whether to construe it broadly or narrowly. In one
577
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