Congress authorized the Citizen’s Health Care Working Group as a provision of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act Of 2003. This provision was sponsored by Senators Ron Wyden of Oregon and Orrin Hatch of Utah. The mission of the Working Group has been to provide a nationwide public debate about improving the American health care system so that health care “works for all Americans” and to use the results of that debate to provide recommendations for Congress and the President to consider as they work to achieve high quality, affordable health care. Working Group members were named February 28, 2005 and released various sets of recommendations.

Amtrak Reform Council (ARC) is an independent federal commission established under the Amtrak Reform and Accountability Act of 1997 (ARAA), which gave the Council a statutory mandate: (i) to recommend to Amtrak actions that the Corporation can take to improve its operational and financial performance; (ii) to monitor Amtrak's financial performance in the light of both Amtrak's own goals for financial performance, as established in its strategic business plan, and the statutory requirement that Amtrak be free of the need for operating grants after the fifth anniversary of the enactment of the ARAA; and (iii) should the Council find that Amtrak has not achieved or will not achieve either of its financial targets, then it is to forward to the Congress recommendations for a restructured and rationalized national intercity rail passenger system.