690
Thomas, J., dissenting
B
Although the Court disclaims the Government's argument that "benefits" means only funds provided under a federal assistance program, the Court, in practice, adopts it. The Court's expansive rationale could be applied to any federal assistance program that provides funds to any organization. This result is inconsistent with the plain meaning of the statute. If Congress had meant to apply § 666 to any organization that receives "funds" totaling more than $10,000 per annum, it would have said so. Cf. 18 U. S. C. § 665 ("Whoever, being . . . connected in any capacity with any agency or organization receiving financial assistance or any funds under [a certain federal program] knowingly enrolls an ineligible participant, embezzles, willfully misapplies, steals, or obtains by fraud any of the moneys, funds, assets, or property which are the subject of a financial assistance agreement or contract pursuant to such Act shall be [punished]"). Congress, for that matter, could have omitted the word "benefits" from the statute and provided simply that any organization that "receives, in any one year period, in excess of $10,000 under a Federal program involving a . . . form of federal assistance" is covered by the statute. That Congress did not do so suggests that the word "benefits" has a
projects or programs." South Dakota v. Dole, 483 U. S. 203, 207 (1987) (internal quotation marks omitted). See id., at 213 (O'Connor, J., dissenting). Arguably, if Congress attempted to criminalize acts of theft or bribery based solely on the fact that—in circumstances unrelated to the theft or bribery—the victim organization received federal funds as payment for a market transaction, this constitutional requirement would not be satisfied. Without a jurisdictional provision that would ensure that in each case the exercise of federal power is related to the federal interest in a federal program, § 666 would criminalize routine acts of fraud or bribery, which, as the Court admits, would "upse[t] the proper federal balance." Ante, at 681. Cf. United States v. Lopez, 514 U. S. 549, 561 (1995) ("[Section] 922(q) contains no jurisdictional element which would ensure, through case-by-case inquiry, that the firearm possession in question affects interstate commerce").
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