Cite as: 534 U. S. 438 (2002)
Stevens, J., dissenting
heres to an interpretation of the statute that produces absurd results. Two Members of Congress—both sponsors of the legislation at issue—have explained that the statute does not mandate such results, and the agency charged with administering the statute agrees. As a partner of the other two branches of Government, we should heed their more reasonable interpretation of Congress' objectives.
The Coal Industry Retiree Health Benefit Act of 1992 (Coal Act or Act), 26 U. S. C. § 9701 et seq. (1994 ed. and Supp. V), authorizes the Commissioner of Social Security (Commissioner) to assign responsibility for providing health care benefits for certain retired coal miners and their beneficiaries. It was enacted in response to the financial difficulties that had plagued the National Bituminous Coal Wage Agreements (NBCWAs), a multiemployer, private health care system, established by representatives of the coal industry and the United Mine Workers Association (UMWA). See Eastern Enterprises v. Apfel, 524 U. S. 498, 511 (1998). The NBCWAs were part of an arrangement in which the UMWA accepted collective-bargaining agreements dictating wages, benefits, and other terms of employment in exchange for, inter alia, promises regarding the provision of lifetime health benefits for retired miners. After many of the coal operators who were signatories to the NBCWAs went out of business or withdrew from their coverage, the remaining signatories were forced to assume a share of the health care costs for those operators' employees.
Consequently, the remaining members had an even greater incentive to avoid their obligations under the agreements. Ibid. The ensuing downward spiral threatened the NBCWAs' ability to provide health benefits. In evaluating legislative solutions, Congress "was advised that more than 120,000 retirees might not receive 'the benefits they were promised' " during the collective-bargaining process. Id., at 513 (quoting Coal Commission Report on Health Benefits of Retired Coal Miners: Hearing before the Subcommittee on
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