Cite as: 535 U. S. 789 (2002)
Opinion of the Court
fits," as part of the court's judgment, and further specified that "no other fee would be payable." Ibid. Violation of the "reasonable fee" or "25 percent of accrued benefits" limitation was made subject to the same penalties as those applicable for charging a fee larger than the amount approved by the Commissioner for services at the administrative level— a fine of up to $500, one year's imprisonment, or both. Ibid. "[T]o assure the payment of the fee allowed by the court," Congress authorized the agency "to certify the amount of the fee to the attorney out of the amount of the accrued benefits." Ibid.; see supra, at 804, n. 13.
Congress thus sought to protect claimants against "inordinately large fees" and also to ensure that attorneys representing successful claimants would not risk "nonpayment of [appropriate] fees." SSA Report 66 (internal quotation marks omitted). But nothing in the text or history of § 406(b) reveals a "desig[n] to prohibit or discourage attorneys and claimants from entering into contingent fee agreements." Ibid. Given the prevalence of contingent-fee agreements between attorneys and Social Security claimants, it is unlikely that Congress, simply by prescribing "reasonable fees," meant to outlaw, rather than to contain, such agreements.14
This conclusion is bolstered by Congress' 1990 authorization of contingent-fee agreements under § 406(a), the provision governing fees for agency-level representation. Before enacting this express authorization, Congress instructed the Social Security Administration to prepare a report on attor-14 Cf., e. g., Act of Mar. 3, 1891, § 9, 26 Stat. 851-854 (regulating fees for claims by Native Americans before the Court of Claims and providing: "all contracts heretofore made for fees and allowances to claimants' attorneys, are hereby declared void . . . and the allowances to the claimant's attorneys shall be regulated and fixed by the court"); Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, 43 U. S. C. § 1621(a) (1994 ed.) ("None of the revenues granted by [the Act] shall be subject to any contract which is based on a percentage fee of the value of all or some portion of the settlement granted by this [Act].").
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