Opinion of the Court
opportunity to be heard on those changes—and it affords the agency a chance to avoid errors and make a more informed decision. See 1 K. Hickman & R. Pierce, Administrative Law §4.8 (6th ed. 2019). Surely a rational Congress could have thought those benefits especially valuable when it comes to a program where even minor changes to the agency’s approach can impact millions of people and billions of dollars in ways that are not always easy for regulators to anticipate. None of this is to say Congress had to proceed as it did. It is only to say that Congress reasonably could have believed that the policy decision reflected in the statute would yield benefits sufficient to outweigh the speculative burdens the government has suggested. And if notice and comment really does threaten to “become a major roadblock to the implementation of ” Medicare, post, at 10, the agency can seek relief from Congress, which—unlike the courts—is both qualified and constitutionally entitled to weigh the costs and benefits of different approaches and make the necessary policy judgment.
IV
There are two more lines of argument that deserve brief acknowledgment. One concerns §1395hh(a)(4), which provides that a Medicare regulation struck down for not being a logical outgrowth of the government’s proposal can’t “take effect” until the agency provides a “further opportunity for public comment.” The hospitals claim, and the court of appeals held, that subsection (a)(4) also and independently required notice and comment here. But given our holding affirming the court of appeals’ judgment under §1395hh(a)(2), we have no need to reach this question.
Separately, we can imagine that the government might have sought to argue that the policy at issue here didn’t “establis[h] or chang[e]” a substantive legal standard—and
