Cite as: 516 U. S. 400 (1996)
Opinion of the Court
Hiles contends that the distinction between a closed knuckle and a misaligned drawbar makes a difference because opening a knuckle can be accomplished without going between cars but realigning a drawbar cannot. This is particularly true, Hiles argues, given that Congress' "central policy" in enacting the SAA was to protect the worker by obviating the necessity of going between cars. Brief for Respondent 12-13. We decline to adopt an expansive interpretation of § 2 that would prohibit railroad employees from going between cars to realign slued drawbars. The language of § 2, which requires couplers that both will couple and can be uncoupled without the necessity of persons going between the cars, does not easily lend itself to Hiles' interpretation. Instead, as even Hiles apparently concedes, see Brief for Respondent 19, the text of § 2 only requires railroads to use a particular kind of coupler with certain attributes, and there is no question that Norfolk & Western's cars are equipped with couplers with the necessary functional characteristics.15
have been entitled to judgment as a matter of law even if he had been
injured during a failed coupling attempt.
15 Hiles reads into the legislative history a singular congressional intent to keep railroad workers from going between cars. Our construction of § 2 rests on the text of the statute and our prior interpretations of that language. In any event, we think Hiles' reading of the legislative history is erroneous. For instance, Hiles selectively quotes statements made by W. E. Rodgers during Senate Committee hearings to suggest that Congress wanted to force the railroads to adopt a coupler that would keep railworkers out from between cars altogether. Brief for Respondent 14. A full reading of these statements makes clear, however, that Mr. Rodgers believed that adoption of the Janney design, as it then existed, would fully satisfy the requirements of § 2. Sen. Hearings, at 14. Hiles' reliance on statements made by H. S. Haines, vice president of the American Railway Association, is similarly misplaced. See Brief for Respondent 15. Mr. Haines evidently thought that 500 existing couplers would satisfy the requirements of the proposed bill. Sen. Hearings, at 41; see Hearings on Automatic Couplers and Power Brakes before the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, 52d Cong., 1st Sess., 6 (1892). If Con-
411
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