354
Opinion of the Court
of fees based on hourly rates greater than a specified rate. In other words, these sections define the substantive availability of attorney's fees; they do not purport to define the temporal reach of these substantive limitations. This language falls short of demonstrating a "clear congressional intent" favoring retroactive application of these fees limitations. Landgraf, 511 U. S., at 280. It falls short, in other words, of the "unambiguous directive" or "express command" that the statute is to be applied retroactively. Id., at 263, 280.
In any event, we note that "brought," as used in this section, is not a past-tense verb; rather, it is the participle in a participial phrase modifying the noun "action." And although the word "any" is broad, it stretches the imagination to suggest that Congress intended, through the use of this one word, to make the fee limitations applicable to all fee awards. Finally, we do not believe that the phrase "[n]o award" in § 803(d)(3) demonstrates congressional intent to apply that section to all fee awards (i. e., fee payment orders) entered after the PLRA's effective date. Had Congress intended § 803(d)(3) to apply to all fee orders entered after the effective date, even when those awards compensate for work performed before the effective date, it could have used language more obviously targeted to addressing the temporal reach of that section. It could have stated, for example, that "No award entered after the effective date of this Act shall be based on an hourly rate greater than the ceiling rate."
The conclusion that § 803(d) does not clearly express congressional intent that it apply retroactively is strengthened by comparing § 803(d) to the language that we suggested in Landgraf might qualify as a clear statement that a statute was to apply retroactively: "[T]he new provisions shall apply to all proceedings pending on or commenced after the date of enactment." Id., at 260 (internal quotation marks omitted). This provision, unlike the language of the PLRA, unambiguously addresses the temporal reach of the statute.
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