Cite as: 517 U. S. 882 (1996)
Opinion of the Court
graf v. USI Film Products, supra, at 280, and inquiry is at an end.
Notwithstanding the clarity of § 9204(a)(1), the Court of Appeals believed that the text of §§ 9201 and 9202(a) require retroactive application of the benefit accrual rules. To deny an employee credit for service years during which he was excluded from the plan based on age, even though that exclusion was lawful at the time, the Court of Appeals reasoned, is to reduce the rate of benefits accrual for that employee.10
60 F. 3d, at 620. When Congress includes a provision that specifically addresses the temporal effect of a statute, that provision trumps any general inferences that might be drawn from the substantive provisions of the statute. See generally Morales v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., 504 U. S. 374, 384 (1992); Fourco Glass Co. v. Transmirra Products Corp., 353 U. S. 222, 228-229 (1957). Even if it were proper to disregard the express time limitations in § 9204(a)(1) in favor of more general language, §§ 9201 and 9202(a) cannot bear the weight of the Court of Appeals' construction. A reduction in total benefits due is not the same thing as a reduction in the rate of benefit accrual; the former is the final outcome of the calculation, whereas the latter is one of the factors in the equation.
* * *
The judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
It is so ordered.
10 See 29 U. S. C. § 1054(b)(1)(H)(i) (OBRA § 9202(a)) (defined benefit plan violates ERISA's benefit accrual requirements "if, under the plan, an employee's benefit accrual is ceased, or the rate of an employee's benefit accrual is reduced, because of the attainment of any age"); § 623(i)(1)(A) (OBRA § 9201) (prohibiting employers from establishing or maintaining a defined benefit plan that "requires or permits . . . the cessation of an employee's benefit accrual, or the reduction of the rate of an employee's benefit accrual").
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