Cite as: 526 U. S. 86 (1999)
Opinion of the Court
thority, imposes an obligation to engage in midterm bargain-ing—an obligation that the proposed clause only reiterates. Id., at 479-480. And even if such an obligation did not exist under the Statute, the Authority added, a proposal to create a contractual obligation to bargain midterm is a fit subject for endterm negotiation. Id., at 480-481. Consequently, the Authority ordered the Agency to bargain over the proposed clause.
The Fourth Circuit set aside the Authority's order. 132 F. 3d 157 (1997). The court reiterated its own view that the Statute itself does not impose any midterm bargaining duty. Id., at 161-162. That being so, it concluded, the parties should not be required to bargain endterm about including a clause that would require bargaining midterm. The court reasoned that once bargaining over such a clause began, the employer would have no choice but to accept the clause. Were the employer not to do so (by bargaining to impasse over the proposed clause), the Federal Service Impasses Panel would then inevitably insert the clause over the employer's objection, as the Impasses Panel (like the D. C. Circuit) believes that a midterm bargaining clause would merely reiterate the duty to bargain midterm that the Statute itself imposes. Ibid.
We granted certiorari to consider the conflicting views of the Circuits.
II
We shall focus primarily upon the basic question that divided the Circuits: Does the Statute itself impose a duty to bargain during the term of an existing labor contract? The Fourth Circuit thought that the Statute did not impose a duty to bargain midterm and that the matter was sufficiently clear to warrant judicial rejection of the contrary view of the agency charged with the Statute's administration. SSA, supra, at 1284 (stating that " 'Congress has directly spoken to the precise question at issue,' " and quoting Chevron U. S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.,
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