The surge of acronym bills in Congress is a tell for American politics, marking the rise of the internet age, where citizens and lawmakers alike rely on the punchy over the deliberative.

AID, or the Act for International Development, is believed to be the first piece of legislation titled with a snappy acronym headline, back in 1950. The technique was rare at first, with just three acronyms used across the ’70s and ’80s, according to researcher Christopher Sagers. But their use exploded in the 2000s, with roughly 10% of bills and resolutions introduced between 2020 and 2022 bearing such titles, up from 1 in 20 in the previous decade, and under 1% in the late 1990s, an Atlantic analysis found.