Reuse those abbreviations!

Earlier this week, the Department of Homeland Security released the “Executive Order 13636

Privacy and Civil Liberties Assessment Report.”

This report has some interesting attributes that distinguish it from most government reports. It has an interesting language, with much more equivocation than is typical in a government document. [More on that in a subsequent blog.] But the “PaCLAR” also continues the use of the term “SSA” – Sector Specific Agency – which was introduced last year by DHS in the National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP) 2013 to implement Presidential Policy Directive 21 (PPD-21).

Coining the abbreviation “SSA” (abbreviation – it is technically not an acronym unless it has its own pronunciation) is confirmation of the initial shortage that seems to emanate from the secret Government Alphabet Office (GAO) in DHS. Unofficial reports from DHS confirm the Policy of Alphabetic Conservation (PAC) being implemented to reduce funding to create new abbreviations and acronyms (AAA). The White House has an internal Directive on Directives (DoD) that mandates reuse of abbreviations rather than the creation of new abbreviations whenever possible. The General Specification for Abbreviations (GSA) has been called “a bold leadership policy.” The Administration is encouraging Congress to consider enacting an Abbreviation Control Act (ACA) to make the policy a legal mandate. A Federal Abbreviation Regulation (FAR) is being developed to Officially Monitor Brevity (OMB) as a part of a larger Energy Optimization Program (EOP). The Reuse Formula Initiative (RFI) is reported to be planned for public commentary (PC) under a larger Formula Organization Interim Authority (FOIA). Rumors abound that a Republican Congressman will be named by the White House to lead a bipartisan Dedicated Homonym Study (DHS). The reported objective of the study is to create a Unified Standard for Abbreviations (USA).

The overall effort is being termed by White House sources as the “April Initiative” (AI) to denote the Initial Optimization Abbreviation (IOA) on the first day of this month.