Cite as: 535 U. S. 212 (2002)
Opinion of the Court
bility." 42 U. S. C. §§ 423(a)(1)(D)(i), 423(c)(2)(A). He adds that this 5-month "waiting period" assures a lengthy period of time during which the applicant (who must be "under a disability" throughout) has been unable to work. And it thereby provides ironclad protection against the claimant who suffers a chronic, but only briefly disabling, disease, such as the claimant who suffers high blood pressure in our earlier example. See supra, at 219. This claim does not help Walton, however, for it shows, at most, that the Agency might have chosen other reasonable time periods—a matter not disputed. Regardless, Walton's "waiting period" argument could work only in respect to Title II, not Title XVI. Title XVI has no waiting period, though it uses identical definitional language. And Walton does not explain why we should interpret the same statutory words differently in closely related contexts. See Department of Revenue of Ore. v. ACF Industries, Inc., 510 U. S. 332, 342 (1994) (" '[I]dentical words used in different parts of the same act are intended to have the same meaning' " (quoting Sorenson v. Secretary of Treasury, 475 U. S. 851, 860 (1986) (some internal quotation marks omitted)).
Walton also asks us to disregard the Agency's interpretation of its formal regulations on the ground that the Agency only recently enacted those regulations, perhaps in response to this litigation. We have previously rejected similar arguments. Smiley v. Citibank (South Dakota), N. A., 517 U. S. 735, 741 (1996); United States v. Morton, 467 U. S. 822, 835- 836, n. 21 (1984).
Regardless, the Agency's interpretation is one of long standing. See supra, at 220. And the fact that the Agency previously reached its interpretation through means less formal than "notice and comment" rulemaking, see 5 U. S. C. § 553, does not automatically deprive that interpretation of the judicial deference otherwise its due. Cf. Chevron, 467 U. S., at 843 (stating, without delineation of means, that the " 'power of an administrative agency to administer a congres-
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