264
Opinion of the Court
Our holding today is in accord with our precedent establishing that sovereign immunity bars creditors from attaching or garnishing funds in the Treasury, see Buchanan v. Alexander, 4 How. 20 (1845), or enforcing liens against property owned by the United States, see United States v. Ansonia Brass & Copper Co., 218 U. S. 452, 471 (1910); United States ex rel. Hill v. American Surety Co. of N. Y., 200 U. S. 197, 203 (1906) ("As against the United States, no lien can be provided upon its public buildings or grounds"). Respondent points to nothing in the text or history of § 702 that suggests that Congress intended to overrule this precedent, let alone anything that " 'unequivocally express[es]' " such an intent. Lane, 518 U. S., at 192.
Instead, recognizing that sovereign immunity left sub-contractors and suppliers without a remedy against the Government when the general contractor became insolvent, Congress enacted the Miller Act (and its predecessor the Heard Act) to protect these workers. See United States v. Munsey Trust Co., 332 U. S. 234, 241 (1947); Ansonia Brass & Copper Co., supra, at 471. But the Miller Act by its terms only gives subcontractors the right to sue on the surety bond posted by the prime contractor, not the right to recover their losses directly from the Government.
Respondent contends that in several cases examining a surety's right of equitable subrogation, this Court suggested that subcontractors and suppliers can seek compensation directly against the Government. See, e. g., Prairie State Bank v. United States, 164 U. S. 227 (1896); Henning-sen v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co. of Baltimore, 208 U. S. 404, 410 (1908); Pearlman v. Reliance Ins. Co., 371 U. S. 132, 141 (1962) (stating that "the laborers and material-men had a right to be paid out of the fund [retained by the Government]" and hence a surety was subrogated to this right); but see Munsey Trust Co., supra, at 241 ("[N]othing is more clear than that laborers and materialmen do not have enforceable rights against the United States for their com-
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