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> The measure, originally called the Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments (PELOSI) Act, would prohibit members of Congress and thei

> The measure, originally called the Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments (PELOSI) Act, would prohibit members of Congress and their spouses from trading or holding individual stocks I genuinely laughed out loud at the bill's original name.

tialaramex 1y ago
That one is fun, but it's part of a general trend of childish naming of US laws that is not a good sign for the health of the country making them. It's a Brown M&M for the country that you're focused on sound bite names for laws, not their content. Years ago I ran into the fun hack introduced in Britain's laws during my lifetime. Modern laws provide short names for themselves, so an Act might say you can refer to this as the "1996 Goat Prevention Act" and even though it has an unwieldy long full name that shorter name works everywhere you need to name it, but some older laws don't do this, so that's annoying, and also if you've repealed the law you can't use a short name which no longer exists because the law itself was repealed and that's where the short name comes from. So, they passed a law which said when you repeal a law which gives any law a short name, those short names still work anyway. Then they passed a law which just provides convenient short names for laws people often want to refer to but don't come with short names, then they repealed that second law. Done.
- potato3732842 1y ago
  Naming laws after people who did bad stuff you're trying to legislate away or their victims is at least a hundred years old. Only a rabid partisan would complain about a law about insider trading being named after one of the politicans most notorious for it. Personally I think they names should be more humorous and creative but I think this one is way, way better than stupid contradictory names like the PATRIOT act.
  - walls 1y ago
    There are nine members of congress who trade more profitably than her, but for some reason certain people use her as the poster child for this problem.
    - potato3732842 1y ago
      She became the poster child for it because she's the daughter of a politician who did the same sort of thing. She's a poster child for "evil congress lizard" the same way that the Kochs and Soros and Murdoch are poster children for "evil billionares" even though there's richer ones.
- onionisafruit 1y ago
  It’s like bit.ly for laws except you can still reference the laws when it goes away.
- xnx 1y ago
  > That one is fun, but it's part of a general trend of childish naming of US laws I'd say that we reached a nadir with "119th Congress (2025-2026): One Big Beautiful Bill Act", but that would be tempting fate.
JKCalhoun 1y ago
I preferred the Hubris Afflicts Weak Legislators Every Year Act.

tialaramex 1y ago

That one is fun, but it's part of a general trend of childish naming of US laws that is not a good sign for the health of the country making them. It's a Brown M&M for the country that you're focused on sound bite names for laws, not their content. Years ago I ran into the fun hack introduced in Britain's laws during my lifetime. Modern laws provide short names for themselves, so an Act might say you can refer to this as the "1996 Goat Prevention Act" and even though it has an unwieldy long full name that shorter name works everywhere you need to name it, but some older laws don't do this, so that's annoying, and also if you've repealed the law you can't use a short name which no longer exists because the law itself was repealed and that's where the short name comes from. So, they passed a law which said when you repeal a law which gives any law a short name, those short names still work anyway. Then they passed a law which just provides convenient short names for laws people often want to refer to but don't come with short names, then they repealed that second law. Done.

potato3732842 1y ago
Naming laws after people who did bad stuff you're trying to legislate away or their victims is at least a hundred years old. Only a rabid partisan would complain about a law about insider trading being named after one of the politicans most notorious for it. Personally I think they names should be more humorous and creative but I think this one is way, way better than stupid contradictory names like the PATRIOT act.
- walls 1y ago
  There are nine members of congress who trade more profitably than her, but for some reason certain people use her as the poster child for this problem.
  - potato3732842 1y ago
    She became the poster child for it because she's the daughter of a politician who did the same sort of thing. She's a poster child for "evil congress lizard" the same way that the Kochs and Soros and Murdoch are poster children for "evil billionares" even though there's richer ones.
onionisafruit 1y ago
It’s like bit.ly for laws except you can still reference the laws when it goes away.
xnx 1y ago
> That one is fun, but it's part of a general trend of childish naming of US laws I'd say that we reached a nadir with "119th Congress (2025-2026): One Big Beautiful Bill Act", but that would be tempting fate.

JKCalhoun 1y ago

I preferred the Hubris Afflicts Weak Legislators Every Year Act.