468
Scalia, J., dissenting
ognized" under the procedures already in place for determining the reasonable 1984 GME costs. Indeed, under the Secretary's interpretation the words "recognized as" become not only superfluous but positively misleading, since without them there would be no question that authority for a new determination was being conferred. It is an unacceptable interpretation which causes the critical words of the text to be (1) meaningless and (2) confusing.
That "recognized as" refers to a determination under the pre-existing regime is strongly confirmed by another provision of the statute that enacted § 1395ww(h)(2)(A) into law: "The Secretary . . . shall report to [specified Committees of the Senate and House of Representatives], not later than December 31, 1987, on whether [§ 1395ww(h)] should be revised to provide for greater uniformity in the approved FTE resident amounts established under [§ 1395ww(h)(2)], and, if so, how such revisions should be implemented." § 9202(e), 100 Stat. 176 (emphases added). This surely envisions that the Secretary will know the amounts established under § 1395ww(h)(2)(A) by December 31, 1987—well within the 3-year window for revisiting and revising any teaching hospital's actual 1984 reimbursement amounts. The Secretary's assertion that § 1395ww(h)(2)(A) confers a new authority to make cost determinations can technically be reconciled with this directive for a December 31, 1987, evaluation only by saying that the new authority was supposed to be exercised before that date. But if it was supposed to be exercised before that date, it was entirely superfluous, since all prior determinations could be revised before that date under the old authority. In short, given the evaluation deadline, the Secretary's interpretation makes no sense.
Most judicial constructions of statutes solve textual problems; today's construction creates textual problems, in order to solve a practical one. The problem to which the Secretary's implausible reading of the statute is the solution is simply this: Though the Secretary had plenty of time, after
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