Politics is often a play of words, in America as much as in India. A news report which said the Trump administration had asked the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to avoid using words such as diversity, entitlement and evidence-based. in documents for next year’s budget stirred a controversy recently. The administration responded by saying that the report is a “mischaracterisation” of the budget discussions.
But another contest this week clearly left the Republicans at a loss of words — or rather with a problem of plenty. The Democrats forced them to rename the much-hyped tax code legislation to “An Act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to titles II and V of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2018.” Mr. Trump had started with the wish to name the new law the “Cut Cut Cut” Act. It was first voted in the House of Representatives as “The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act”, but Senate Democrats protested as the title was not consistent with a legislative rule that the Republicans invoked to speed up the voting process at the cost of deliberations. The Bill was voted in the House for a second time, with the new name.
Legislative titles can often be misleading. The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) that the U.S. Supreme Court declared unconditional in 2015 had prohibited married same-sex couples from collecting federal benefits. ‘Religious liberty’ is another concept that is loosely thrown around in legislative drafts, often to restrict gay rights.
American lawmakers also search for Bill titles that make for appealing acronyms. Early this year, Representative Mike Quigley introduced the “Covfefe” Act — or Communications Over Various Feeds Electronically for Engagement. Covfefe was a typo in a tweet by Mr. Trump. The Covfefe Bill seeks to amend the Presidential Records Act to include the term “social media” as documentary material, ensuring additional preservation of presidential communication and statements.
Oops Act
The Covfefe Bill raises a valid concern but it may find a tough challenger in the OOPS Act for its silly title. “Oppose Oversharing by Presidents Act” was introduced by a Democratic lawmaker when reports said Donald Trump shared “highly classified” intelligence with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and former Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in May.
BOSS ACT — Better Oversight of Secondary Sales and Accountability in Concert Ticketing — introduced in 2016 sought to bring transparency in ticket pricing and sales, after a Bruce Springsteen concert brought these concerns to the front. Mr. Springsteen goes by the moniker Boss. On a more serious note, the pending DREAM or Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, seeks to protect illegal residents who arrived in America as children. They are now called Dreamers, thanks to the Bill title.
The Pension And Social Security Measuring Equivalence Permanent Linking of Everyone’s Actual Savings Environment (PASS ME PLEASE) Act, which merely sought to correct a typo on Page 346 of the tax code, riled Congressman Mike Honda so much that he introduced the Accountability and Congressional Responsibility On Naming Your Motions (ACRONYM) Act in 2015. It sought to prohibit the addition of words to the title of a Bill just to create an acronym. Mr. Honda lost in the 2016 Democratic primary to Ro Khanna and is no longer in the House, leaving the Bill an orphan.
Varghese K. George works for The Hindu and is based in Washington