Best bill acronyms II, from MAMDANI and SANTOS to DOGE and FLACO

Assembly Member Sam Berger was making an April Fools’ joke when he said he was introducing the Abolishing Confusing Reductions Of Names Yielding Misunderstanding – or ACRONYM – Act. Politics can be so serious that sometimes injecting a little levity keeps us all sane. To make bill name acronyms a crime would be a crime itself. And politicos would miss out on what has truly become an art, from Washington, D.C., to Albany. New York politicians have come up with their fair share of bill acronyms from both the past and present. Here are some of the best recent examples.

MAMDANI Act

Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, quickly became the right’s primary target of ire, and Rep. Mike Lawler wasted no time jumping on the bandwagon. He introduced the Measuring Adverse Market Disruption and National Impact – or MAMDANI – Act, which would require the Federal Trade Commission to complete a study on the impacts of government-run supermarkets. Such grocery stores were a key policy proposal from Mamdani, and Lawler made no secret of his disdain for the idea with his targeted legislation.

HOUTHI PC SMALL GROUP Act

Some people truly just come up with bill acronyms for the love of the game, and Rep. Ritchie Torres is one of them. Following the debacle in which a journalist was accidentally added to a Trump administration military group chat, Torres introduced the HOUTHI PC SMALL GROUP Act, so named for the group chat in question. And yes, that is indeed an acronym. The full name is the Homeland Operations and Unilateral Tactics Halting Incursions: Preventing Coordinated Subversion, Military Aggression and Lawless Levies Granting Rogue Operatives Unchecked Power Act. That’s dedication to the craft.

SANTOS Act

In another bill aimed at a specific person, Torres and Rep. Dan Goldman introduced the SANTOS Act in honor of the disgraced former Rep. George Santos, who recently reported to prison. The acronym stands for Stopping Another Non-Truthful Office Seeker, which would create campaign finance penalties for candidates found to be lying about their resume, as Santos did. Torres double-dipped with the GEORGE resolution that would bar expelled members of the House from the chamber.

BODEGA Act

The first letter of the BODEGA Act acronym is the word “bodega.” Perhaps a bit of a cop out, but not every Torres hit is going to be a home run. In full, the legislation is the Bodega Owner Defense Enhancement Grant Assistance Act, which would make certain federal grant monies available for bodega and other small-business owners to install panic buttons and surveillance equipment.

TREES Act

After Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoed the Tropical Deforestation-Free Procurement Act in 2023, bill sponsors state Sen. Liz Krueger and now-former Assembly Member Kenneth Zebrowski decided they needed something fresh. The original name was a bit of a mouthful after all. So when they reintroduced the bill in 2024, they dubbed it the Tropical Rainforest Economic and Environmental Sustainability Act, which is shortened to the much pithier TREES Act. And who doesn’t like trees?

RFK Jr. Act

State Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal is also a connoisseur of acronyms. He flexed his skill late last year when he renamed a bill to take aim at the now-U.S. secretary of health and human services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Hoylman-Sigal used the opportunity to bring attention to the existing legislation in light of Kennedy’s well-known vaccine skepticism. Enter the RFK Jr. Act, which stands for the Registry for Keeping Justified Records Act. It would create an information system of adults who opt out of vaccines.

FLACO Act

Remember the short period of time when New York City went crazy for an escaped Eurasian eagle-owl named Flaco before his unexpected death? Hoylman-Sigal certainly didn’t. After the bird’s demise, he, Assembly Member Anna Kelles and then-Assembly Member Pat Fahy renamed the Bird Safe Buildings Act in Flaco’s honor. The beloved bird’s memory is immortalized as the Feathered Lives Also Count Act (which isn’t a perfect acronym, but we’ll let it slide this time).

SMOKEOUT Act

Assembly Member Jenifer Rajkumar may not have won her bid to become New York City public advocate, but she did succeed in getting a great acronym bill name for one of her marquee issues. The SMOKEOUT Act, parts of which were included in the 2024 state budget, aimed to make it easier for localities to shut down illegal pot shops. It stands for Stop Marijuana Over-Proliferation and Keep Empty Operators of Unlicensed Transactions.

FARE Act

Keep the spelling police away from this one. The Fairness in Apartment Rental Expenses – or FARE – Act made lots of headlines when it became law for ending the practice in New York City of tenants paying broker fees for an agent hired by a landlord. As the first word of the name indicates, the law is about making things more fair for tenants, so “fare” doesn’t quite fit. But again, we’ll let it slide because it works just as well when spoken out loud.

DOGE Act

In another hit for Hoylman-Sigal, as well as acronym up-and-comer Assembly Member Micah Lasher, the DOGE Act takes aim at Elon Musk and his company Tesla. Named for the pseudo-government agency Musk headed at the start of the year ostensibly focused on government efficiency, the Determining Obligations and Guaranteeing Enforcement in Government Contracting Act would prompt investigations and the potential cancellation of contracts Tesla has with the state. Sure, the last bit doesn’t work for the acronym, but it’s still a good one.