Cite as: 521 U. S. 1 (1997)
Opinion of Thomas, J.
wise made very plain." Id., at 55 (emphases added). After the enactment of the Submerged Lands Act, it appears that not only is retention of submerged lands not "lightly to be inferred," it is not to be inferred at all. In this respect, Congress has required of itself a higher standard than either the Master or the majority attribute to it.2
Neither the Master, in his exhaustive Report, nor the majority, in its only slightly less exhaustive opinion, cites anything meeting what I believe to be the requirement of an express retention of submerged lands within the boundaries of the National Petroleum Reserve. The majority focuses, instead, on the "purpose of a conveyance or reservation" as a "critical factor in determining federal intent." Ante, at 39 (emphasis in original). The Court concludes that the purposes for establishing the Reserve—primarily to ensure federal possession of petroleum resources within the Reserve's boundaries—would be undermined if the United States did not retain the submerged lands. So "[i]t is simply not plausible," says the majority, "that the United States sought to reserve only the upland portions of the area." Ante, at 39-40. To me, these considerations are wholly beside the point. Congress, when it incorporated the Submerged Lands Act into § 6(m) of the Alaska Statehood Act, Pub. L. 85-508, 72 Stat. 343, demanded of itself an express retention of submerged lands to prevent their passage to Alaska. If Congress had the purpose attributed to it by the majority, the best way—indeed, the only legal way—for it to realize that purpose was to state "expressly" that the submerged lands inside the
2 Section 5(a)'s standard is at the same time somewhat more generous to the United States. In Utah Div. of State Lands v. United States, 482 U. S. 193 (1987), we asserted that a reservation—as opposed to a conveyance—of land would not be held to defeat state title to submerged lands even if those lands were manifestly included in the reservation where there was lacking an indication from Congress that it "affirmatively" intended to defeat a future State's title to those lands. See id., at 202. This was, we thought, required by congressional policy. I do not, however, perceive that requirement in the language of § 5(a).
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