Cite as: 511 U. S. 39 (1994)
Opinion of the Court
original offense, and 5 times the applicable statutory maximum for cocaine possession. It seems unlikely that Congress could have intended so to enlarge the District Court's discretion. See Penn, 17 F. 3d, at 73.7
B
Two of the Government's arguments against Granderson's interpretation are easily answered. First, the Government observes that the purpose of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act was to impose tough sanctions on drug abusers. See Brief for United States 22-26 (listing new penalties and quoting statements from Members of Congress that they intended to punish drug offenders severely). But we cannot divine from the legislators' many "get tough on drug offenders" statements any reliable guidance to particular provisions. None of the legislators' expressions, as the Government admits, focuses on "the precise meaning of the provision at issue in this case." Id., at 24, and n. 4; cf. Busic v. United States, 446 U. S. 398, 408 (1980) ("[W]hile Congress had a general desire to deter firearm abuses, that desire was not unbounded. Our task here is to locate one of the boundaries, and the inquiry is not advanced by the assertion that Congress wanted no boundaries."). Under Granderson's interpretation, moreover, drug possessors are hardly favored. In-7 The dissent suggests that the statutory maximum for the original offense (five years in this case, see 18 U. S. C. § 1703(a)) is the maximum revocation sentence. See post, at 77, n. 8. The District Court, however, could not have imposed this sentence originally, without providing "the specific reason" for departing from the Guidelines range, 18 U. S. C. § 3553(c), and explaining in particular why "an aggravating . . . circumstance [exists,] of a kind, or to a degree, [that was] not adequately taken into consideration by the Sentencing Commission in formulating the guidelines . . . ." § 3553(b). Upward departures from the presumptive Guidelines range to the statutory maximum are thus appropriate only in exceptional cases. See infra, at 56, n. 14. The dissent's interpretation, however, would allow district courts to impose the statutory maximum as a revocation sentence in the routine exercise of their ordinary discretion.
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