Page:United States Reports 502 OCT. TERM 1991.pdf/301

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Cite as: 502 U. S. 129 (1991)

143

Blackmun, J., dissenting

Two of the three definitions offered in the EAJA Conference Report state only that an adversary adjudication is an adjudication where the agency has taken a position or is represented by counsel; they omit altogether any mention of § 554. See H. R. Conf. Rep. No. 96–1434, pp. 21, 23 (1980) (Conference Report). According to the third definition: “The conference substitute defines adversary adjudication as an agency adjudication defined under the Administrative Procedures [sic] Act where the agency takes a position through representation by counsel or otherwise. It is intended that this definition precludes an award in a situation where an agency, e. g., the Social Security Administration, does not take a position in the adjudication. If, however, the agency does take a position at some point in the adjudication, the adjudication would then become adversarial” (emphasis added). Id., at 23. This definition repeats the Report’s earlier focus on the presence or absence of counsel as the decisive factor in determining whether an adjudication is adversary. More important, in its use of the words “defined under,” the Report suggests that an adjudication need not be governed by the APA, but only—as deportation proceedings surely do—correspond to the definition of an adjudication given in the APA. Nowhere in the Committee Reports or in the floor debates is there any suggestion that the words “under section 554” were intended to exclude any particular agency’s adjudications (let alone the INS’) from EAJA coverage. Nor was it ever discussed whether a particular agency’s adjudications were or were not technically governed by § 554 or other provisions of the APA. Indeed, Congress seems to have given no attention whatsoever to whether particular administrative proceedings were adjudications, as opposed to, for example, rulemaking, ratemaking, or licensing proceedings. Instead, Congress’ focus was on whether certain proceed-