322
Opinion of the Court
subject to state taxation. In this case, Congress has provided that banks for cooperatives are subject to state taxation. To be sure, Congress did not include an express statement in the current version of § 2134. However, nothing in the statute indicates a repeal of the previous express approval of state taxation, and the structure of the Farm Credit Act indicates by negative implication that banks for cooperatives are not entitled to immunity.
A
Upon their creation in 1933, banks for cooperatives were subject to state income taxation except during periods when the United States held stock in the banks. Farm Credit Act of 1933, § 63, 48 Stat. 267 ("Such banks, . . . and their income, shall be exempt from all taxation now or hereafter imposed by the United States or by any State, Territorial, or local taxing authority . . . . The exemption provided herein shall not apply . . . with respect to . . . any . . . Bank for Cooperatives, or its property or income after the stock held in it by the United States has been retired"). Under this statute, as soon as governmental investment in a bank for cooperatives was repaid (as it was for all such banks by 1968), the bank had to pay state income taxes because the exemption from such taxation no longer applied.
When Congress amended the Farm Credit Act in 1971, it did not change the rule that banks for cooperatives are subject to state taxation unless the United States holds stock in the banks. Farm Credit Act of 1971, § 3.13, 85 Stat. 608. Although all banks for cooperatives were at the time privately owned, Congress provided that the Governor of the Farm Credit Administration had the authority on behalf of the United States to purchase stock in banks for cooperatives "as a temporary investment in the stock of the institution to help one or several of the banks . . . to meet emergency credit needs of borrowers." § 4.0, 85 Stat. 609. The 1971 version of § 2134 therefore provided, in relevant part:
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