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responsible operator. For this reason, definitions are intended by the drafters to be given broad interpretation to accomplish this goal." 138 Cong. Rec. 34001 (1992).15 To
accept the companies' argument that the specified date for action is jurisdictional would be to read the Act so as to allocate not the greatest, but the least, number of beneficiaries to a responsible operator. The way to reach the congressional objective, however, is to read the statutory date as a spur to prompt action, not as a bar to tardy completion of the business of ensuring that benefits are funded, as much as possible, by those identified by Congress as principally responsible.
The judgments of the Court of Appeals in both cases are accordingly
Reversed.
Justice Scalia, with whom Justice O'Connor and Justice Thomas join, dissenting.
The Court's holding today confers upon the Commissioner of Social Security an unexpiring power to assign retired coal miners to signatory operators under 26 U. S. C. § 9706(a). In my view, this disposition is irreconcilable with the text and structure of the Coal Industry Retiree Health Benefit Act of 1992 (Coal Act or Act), and finds no support in our precedents. I respectfully dissent.
I
The respondents contend that the Commissioner improperly assigned them responsibility for 600 coal miners under § 9706(a). Section 9706(a) provides, in pertinent part:
15 A Congressional Research Service report dated shortly before the enactment likewise states that the Act envisioned that "[w]herever possible, responsibility for individual beneficiaries would be assigned . . . to a previous employer still in business." Coal Industry: Use of Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund Monies for UMWA "Orphan Retiree" Health Benefits (Sept. 10, 1992), reprinted in 138 Cong. Rec., at 34005.
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