Cite as: 537 U. S. 293 (2003)
Breyer, J., dissenting
Rec. 35673 (1977) (remarks of Rep. Butler); see also H. R. Rep., at 286. It might seem fair to count as one such objective the receipt by the public of payment for a partially regulated public asset that the public, through the Government, has sold. Cf. 47 U. S. C. § 309( j)(3)(C).
Finally, nothing in the statute's history suggests any congressional effort to prevent Government repossession where bankruptcy-related concerns, such as "fresh start" concerns, have no relevance. The statute does contain exemptions, but those exemptions, for agriculture-related licenses, are not to the contrary. 11 U. S. C. § 525(a). As I read the statute, the exemptions simply excuse, say, meatpacking licensing agencies from a rule that would otherwise forbid taking negative account of, say, a prior bankruptcy (say, by providing that a license "shall terminate upon [the] licensee . . . being discharged as a bankrupt," 7 U. S. C. § 499d(a); see ante, at 308-309, and n. 1 (Stevens, J., concurring in part and concurring in judgment)). To read them as permitting consideration of former bankruptcies where the food supply is at issue makes them understandable. To read them as support for the majority's view—as authorizing the Government to revoke meatpacking, but only meatpacking, licenses upon nonpayment—makes little sense to me.
The statute's purposes, then, are to stop bankruptcy-related discrimination and to prevent government licensors from interfering with the "fresh start" that bankruptcy promises, but not to prevent government debt-collection efforts where these concerns are not present. Unlike the majority, I believe it possible to interpret the statute's language in a manner consistent with these purposes.
III
The provision's congressional authors expected courts to look for interpretations that would conform the statute's language to its purposes. They conceded that the provision's
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