Cite as: 509 U. S. 292 (1993)
Stevens, J., concurring in judgment
able for services rendered on remand before the Agency, and the 30-day EAJA clock begins to run when the district court enters a final, dispositive judgment for EAJA purposes once the proceedings on remand have been completed. That is the path followed by the Court of Appeals in this case and several Courts of Appeals that have struggled with the tension between Hudson and Melkonyan.1 Because that approach accords with a proper understanding of the purposes underlying EAJA and, in my view, common sense, I would affirm not only the judgment of the Court of Appeals, but its reasoning as well.
The major premise underlying the Court's contrary decision today is that there is sharp distinction, for purposes of EAJA, between remands ordered pursuant to sentence four and sentence six of 42 U. S. C. § 405(g).2 Legal expenses incurred in a "sentence-six" remand may be recoverable under EAJA, the Court suggests, whereas such expenses incurred in a sentence-four remand, the far more common of the two, are most definitely not recoverable. Ante, at 298-300. While this dichotomy has the superficial appeal of purporting to "harmoniz[e] the remand provisions of § 405(g) with the EAJA requirement that a 'final judgment' be entered in the civil action in order to trigger the EAJA filing period," Mel-1 See, e. g., Hafner v. Sullivan, 972 F. 2d 249, 252 (CA8 1992); Labrie v. Secretary of Health and Human Services, 976 F. 2d 779, 785 (CA1 1992); Gutierrez v. Sullivan, 953 F. 2d 579, 584 (CA10 1992).
2 See ante, at 296-297, n. 1. The Court reasons that remands can be ordered only pursuant to sentence six or sentence four, and that Congress left no room for hybrids or for cases that did not fit neatly into either category. Thus, referring to "the plain language of sentence four," ante, at 297, the Court assumes that the sentence "authorizes a district court to enter a judgment 'with or without' a remand order, not a remand order 'with or without' a judgment," ibid. Ironically, when we come to the end of the Court's opinion, we learn that the respondent has prevailed precisely because the District Court in this case did enter a remand order without entering a judgment.
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