Cite as: 537 U. S. 149 (2003)
Scalia, J., dissenting
power. If a landowner authorizes someone to cut Christmas trees "before December 15," there is no doubt what happens when December 15 passes: The authority to cut terminates. And the situation is not changed when the authorization is combined with a mandate—as when the landowner enters a contract which says that the other party "shall cut all Christmas trees on the property before December 15." Even if time were not of the essence of that contract (as it is of the essence of § 9706(a), for reasons I shall discuss in Part III, infra) no one would think that the contractor had continuing authority—not just for a few more days or weeks—but perpetually, to harvest trees.1
The Court points out, ante, at 161-162, that three other provisions of the Coal Act combine the word "shall" with a statutory deadline that in its view is extendible:
(1) Section 9705(a)(1)(A) states that the UMWA Pension Plan "shall transfer to the Combined Fund . . . $70,000,000 on February 1, 1993"; (2) § 9704(h) says the trustees for the Combined Fund "shall, not later than 60 days" after the enactment date,
1 This interpretation of § 9706(a) does not "assum[e] away the very question to be decided," as the Court accuses, ante, at 159, n. 6. It is no assumption at all, but rather the consequence of the proposition that the scope of an agency's power is determined by the text of the statutory grant of authority. Because § 9706(a)'s power to "assign . . . eligible beneficiar[ies]" is prefaced by the phrase "before October 1, 1993," the statutory date is intertwined with the grant of authority; it is part of the very definition of the Commissioner's power. If the statute provided that the Commissioner "shall, on or after October 1, 1993," assign each eligible beneficiary to a signatory operator, it would surely be beyond dispute that pre-October 1, 1993, assignments were ineffective. No different conclusion should obtain here, where the temporal scope of the Commissioner's authority is likewise defined according to a clear and unambiguous date. If this is (as the Court charges) "formalism," ibid., it is only because language is a matter of form. Here the form that Congress chose presumptively represents the political compromise that Congress arrived at.
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