In the Congress of the United States
119th Congress — 1st Session
COVFEFE Act
Your Tax Dollars
Congressional Research Service Summary
The COVFEFE Act — the Communications Over Various Feeds Electronically for Engagement Act — was introduced on June 12, 2017, just days after President Trump’s viral “covfefe” tweet. The bill proposed amending the Presidential Records Act of 1978 to include social media posts as official presidential records subject to preservation requirements.
Bill Details
The bill aimed to ensure that personal social media accounts used by the President for official business would be treated the same as other presidential records. Under the Presidential Records Act, such records must be preserved and eventually transferred to the National Archives.
While the underlying policy question of preserving presidential social media communications is a legitimate governance concern, the bill’s naming was widely seen as a political troll capitalizing on a viral moment. The backronym was crafted specifically to spell “COVFEFE.” The bill never advanced past committee.
Source: This is a real bill introduced in the 115th Congress. View on Congress.gov.
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