386
Opinion of the Court
Amtrak's four private shareholders have not been entitled to vote in selecting the board of directors since 1981.4
By § 548 of the RPSA, Amtrak is required to submit three different annual reports to the President and Congress. One of these, a "report on the effectiveness of this chapter in meeting the requirements for a balanced national transportation system, together with any legislative recommendations," is made part of the Department of Transportation's annual report to Congress. § 548(c).
B
Amtrak is not a unique, or indeed even a particularly unusual, phenomenon. In considering the question before us, it is useful to place Amtrak within its proper context in the long history of corporations created and participated in by the United States for the achievement of governmental objectives.
The first was the Bank of the United States, created by the Act of Feb. 25, 1791, ch. 10, 1 Stat. 191, which authorized the United States to subscribe 20 percent of the corporation's stock, id., at 196. That Bank expired pursuant to the terms of its authorizing Act 20 years later. A second Bank of the United States, the bank of McCulloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheat. 316 (1819), and Osborn v. Bank of United States, 9 Wheat. 738 (1824), was incorporated by the Act of April 10, 1816, 3
4 Originally, Amtrak's board comprised 15 directors: 7 selected by the shareholders and 8 (one of whom had to be the Secretary of Transportation) appointed by the President of the United States. See RPSA §§ 303(a) and (c), 84 Stat. 1330-1331. In 1973, Congress increased the number of directors to 17, the number of Presidential appointees to 9, and made the Secretary of Transportation a director ex officio. See Amtrak Improvement Act of 1973, § 3(a), 87 Stat. 548. In 1976, the number of Presidential appointees (apart from the Secretary of Transportation) was reduced to eight and Amtrak's president made a director ex officio. See Rail Transportation Improvement Act, § 103, 90 Stat. 2615. Amtrak's board was given its current size and membership in 1981. See Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981, § 1174, 95 Stat. 689.
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