Cite as: 537 U. S. 149 (2003)
Opinion of the Court
foresee a failure to make timely assignments. See supra, at 168-169. The phrase "as of" cannot be read to govern a situation that Congress clearly did not contemplate,13 nor
does it require the absolute finality of assignments urged by the companies.
IV
This much is certain: the Coal Act rests on Congress's stated finding that it was necessary to "identify persons most responsible for plan liabilities," and on its express desire to "provide for the continuation of a privately financed self-sufficient program for the delivery of health care benefits," Energy Policy Act of 1992, Pub. L. 102-486, § 19142, 106 Stat. 3037.14 In the words of Senator Wallop's report delivered shortly before enactment, the statute is "designed to allocate the greatest number of beneficiaries in the Plans to a prior
13 The same may be said of the provision for an initial trustee to serve until November 1, 1993, § 9702(b)(3)(B), contrary to Justice Scalia's view. Post, at 182 (dissenting opinion).
14 Under the respondent companies' view, if the transfers from the AML Fund prove insufficient to cover the benefits of all unassigned beneficiaries, an operator that received no assignments prior to October 1, 1993, would not have to contribute a penny to the unassigned beneficiary pool— solely due to the Commissioner's fortuitous failure to make all assignments by the statutory deadline. At the same time, operators that received full assignments prior to October 1, 1993, would be forced to cover more than their fair share of unassigned beneficiaries' premiums.
Although Justice Scalia sees the Act as rife with "seemingly unfair and inequitable provisions," ibid. (dissenting opinion), even his view is no reason to assume that Congress meant contested provisions to be construed in the most unfair and inequitable manner possible. In any event, Justice Scalia's citation of § 9704(f)(2)(B) does not help his position. It provides a clear statutory solution to a problem Congress anticipated: the end of an assigned operator's business. Had Congress propounded a response to the issue now before us as clear as § 9704(f)(2)(B), there would doubtless have been no split in the Courts of Appeals and no cases for us to review. Given the absence of an express provision, the statute's goals are best served by treating operators the way Congress intended them to be treated, that is, by allowing the Commissioner to identify the operators most responsible.
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