618
Opinion of the Court
seen as a pointed one when so many other governmental entities are specified, see 2A Singer, supra, § 47.23, a fact that renders the civil-penalties sections inapplicable to the United States.
Against this reasoning, Ohio argues that the incorporated penalty provisions' exclusion of the United States is overridden by the National Government's express inclusion as a "person" by each of the citizen-suit sections. There is, of course, a plausibility to the argument. Whether that plausibility suffices for the clarity required to waive sovereign immunity is, nonetheless, an issue we need not decide, for the force of Ohio's argument wanes when we look beyond the citizen-suit sections to the full texts of the respective statutes.
What we find elsewhere in each statute are various provisions specially defining "person" and doing so expressly for purposes of the entire section in which the term occurs. Thus, for example, "[f]or the purpose of this [CWA] section," 33 U. S. C. § 1321(a)(7) defines "person" in such a way as to exclude the various governmental entities included in the general definition of "person" in 33 U. S. C. § 1362(5).13
Again, "[f]or the purpose of this section," § 1322(a)(8) defines "person" so as to exclude "an individual on board a public vessel" as well as the governmental entities falling within the general definition. Similarly in RCRA, "[f]or the purpose of . . . subchapter [IX]" the general definition of "person" is expanded to include "the United States Government," among other entities. 42 U. S. C. § 6991(6). Within each statute, then, there is a contrast between drafting that merely redefines "person" when it occurs within a particular clause or sentence and drafting that expressly alters the definition for any and all purposes of the entire section in
however, applies only "[f]or purposes of this Act," ibid., which refers to the Medical Waste Tracking Act of 1988 itself, see 102 Stat. 2950.
13 See n. 11, supra.
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