Cite as: 513 U. S. 374 (1995)
Opinion of the Court
shareholders; only 3 of its 15 directors were appointed by the President, § 733(a).
The Comsat model, which was seen as allowing the Government to act unhindered by the restraints of bureaucracy and politics, see Moe, CRS Report, at 22, 24, was soon followed in creating other corporations. But some of these new "private" corporations, though said by their charters not to be agencies or instrumentalities of the Government, see, e. g., 47 U. S. C. § 396(b) (Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB)); 42 U. S. C. § 2996d(e)(1) (Legal Services Corporation (LSC)), and though not subjected to the restrictions of the GCCA, were (unlike Comsat) managed by boards of directors on which Government appointees had not just a few votes but voting control. See Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, § 201, 81 Stat. 369 (CPB's entire board appointed by President); Legal Services Corporation Act of 1974, § 2, 88 Stat. 379 (same for LSC).
Amtrak is yet another variation upon the Comsat theme. Like Comsat, CPB, and LSC, its authorizing statute declares that it "will not be an agency or establishment of the United States Government." 84 Stat. 1330; see 45 U. S. C. § 541. Unlike Comsat, but like CPB and LSC, its board of directors is controlled by Government appointees. And unlike all three of those "private" corporations, it has been added to the list of corporations covered by the GCCA, see 31 U. S. C. § 9101 (1988 ed. and Supp. V). As one perceptive observer has concluded with regard to the post-Comsat Government-sponsored "private" enterprises:
"There is no valid basis for distinguishing between many government-sponsored enterprises and other types of government activities, except for the fact that they are designed [designated?] by law as 'not an agency and instrumentality of the United States Government.' Comparable powers and immunities could be granted to such agencies without characterizing them as non-government." Seidman, supra, at 93.
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