Cite as: 529 U. S. 667 (2000)
Thomas, J., dissenting
meaning separate and apart from the words "under a Federal program involving a . . . form of federal assistance." I am doubtful that the Court's interpretation gives any meaning at all to the word "benefits" in § 666(b) because, under the Court's rationale, any organization that receives $10,000 under a federal program involving federal assistance receives "benefits" in such an amount.
This expansive construction of § 666(b) is, at the very least, inconsistent with the rule of lenity—which the Court does not discuss. This principle requires that, to the extent that there is any ambiguity in the term "benefits," we should resolve that ambiguity in favor of the defendant. See United States v. Bass, 404 U. S. 336, 347 (1971) ("In various ways over the years, we have stated that when choice has to be made between two readings of what conduct Congress has made a crime, it is appropriate, before we choose the harsher alternative, to require that Congress should have spoken in language that is clear and definite" (internal quotation marks omitted)).
C
I doubt that there is any federal assistance program that does not provide "benefits" to organizations under the Court's expansive rationale, but will illustrate my point with just one example employed by two lower courts. See United States v. Wyncoop, 11 F. 3d 119, 123 (CA9 1993); United States v. LaHue, 998 F. Supp. 1182, 1187 (Kan. 1998), aff'd, 170 F. 3d 1026 (CA10 1999). Many grocery stores accept more than $10,000 per annum in food stamps distributed to individual beneficiaries as part of the Federal Food Stamp and Food Distribution Program. Like Medicare providers, stores participating in the Food Stamp Program are required to satisfy a comprehensive series of statutory and regulatory requirements. See 7 CFR pt. 278 (1999). For example, stores are qualified to participate only if they sell an adequate percentage of staple foods such as meat, cereal, and dairy products. § 278.1(b)(1). Stores must document an
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