Cite as: 535 U. S. 106 (2002)
O'Connor, J., concurring in judgment
(quoting Skidmore, supra, at 140); General Elec. Co. v. Gil-bert, 429 U. S. 125, 141-142 (1976). The EEOC has, however, been given "authority from time to time to issue . . . suitable procedural regulations to carry out the provisions of" Title VII, 42 U. S. C. § 2000e-12(a) (emphasis added). The regulation at issue here, which permits relation back of amendments to charges filed with the EEOC, is clearly such a procedural regulation. See, e. g., Fed. Rule Civ. Proc. 15 (establishing rules for amendments to pleadings and relation back as part of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure). Thus, as the Court recognizes, see ante, at 113-114, the EEOC was exercising authority explicitly delegated to it by Congress when it promulgated this rule.
The regulation was also promulgated pursuant to sufficiently formal procedures. Although the EEOC originally issued the regulation without undergoing formal notice-and-comment procedures, it was repromulgated pursuant to those procedures in 1977. See 42 Fed. Reg. 42022, 42023 (1977); id., at 55388, 55389. We recognized in United States v. Mead Corp., 533 U. S. 218 (2001), that although notice-and-comment procedures are not required for Chevron deference, notice-and-comment is "significant . . . in pointing to Chevron authority," and that an "overwhelming number of our cases applying Chevron deference have reviewed the fruits of notice-and-comment rulemaking or formal adjudication." 533 U. S., at 230-231. I see no reason why a re-promulgation pursuant to notice-and-comment procedures should be less entitled to deference than an original promulgation pursuant to those procedures. Cf. Smiley v. Citi-bank (South Dakota), N. A., 517 U. S. 735, 741 (1996) (giving deference to "a full-dress regulation . . . adopted pursuant to the notice-and-comment procedures of the Administrative Procedure Act designed to assure . . . deliberation" even though the regulation was prompted by litigation).
Moreover, the regulation is codified in the Code of Federal Regulations, 29 CFR § 1601.12(b) (1997), and so is binding
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