Too cute for words

Barney Frank with yet another reason why he's one of my favorite people in Congress. He loathes acronyms and cute names for bills.

“The title of this bill is unfortunately an acronym,” the Massachusetts Democrat said during the recent markup of a bipartisan measure (HR 556) that would overhaul the process for reviewing foreign investment in the United States. “The chair does not intend to bring forward further legislation in which the title is a word.”

In this case, the title was National Security FIRST Act — short for National Security Foreign Investment Reform and Strengthened Transparency Act of 2007.

“I regret that you won’t allow any more acronyms,” replied Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, D-N.Y., the bill’s main sponsor. “We worked hard on this acronym.”

Secretly, Congressman Frank is known to spend too much time here.