Stocks continued to fall as lawmakers started searching for a solution in the late 1990's.
After a court battle, lawmakers last year started fully disclosing the items, which ran to $200 million in the most recent budget.
And since then, something interesting has happened: lawmakers, journalists and citizens are starting to talk seriously about the future of passenger trains in America.
The same lawmakers who voted for the act started having second thoughts when questions about overtime pay and sexual-harassment complaints arose.
And there are signs that lawmakers are starting to take notice.
In light of these incidents, lawmakers, courts and the food industry are starting to consider how to ensure co-existence or determine liability.
In 2006, Italian lawmakers started debating how to introduce a law on fair trade in Parliament.
Since then, lawmakers have started using their office budgets to provide BlackBerries to even junior staff members.
The sooner lawmakers start accommodating themselves the better, he said.
Influential lawmakers are starting to sift through the evidence, which has the potential to reshape the debate over the future of Medicare.