Behind closed doors: the reform task force

Other outside groups undoubtedly have influence in the reform task force process. The Jackson Hole Group is the most frequently named. The overall impression left by this internal document, however, is that the available knowledge and experience-base on these complex issues is not being used. It's not necessarily a process that everyone inside buys off on either. The March 26th issue of the Wall Street Journal reported," ... conviviality can't mask the tensions as the May deadline for the plan approaches. Although scores of House and Senate staffers are participating in the task force deliberations, they give widely different accounts of their actual contributions, and control rests with those outside Congress ... Ways and Means staffers, for example, have kept their distance.