Left unsaid at Senate hearing with regulators: ‘EGRRCPA’ (thankfully)

As federal financial institution regulators spoke Tuesday to Senate Banking Committee members in testimony and during questions and answers, many words and terms were thrown about.

But one term noticeably was left unsaid: EGRRCPA, as a word.

The hearing before the Senate committee was focused on the regulators’ actions in applying the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act, enacted into law May 24. The bill was passed as S. 2155.

In typical Washington/bureaucracy fashion, some have tried (with mixed results) since the enactment of the bill to refer to it by its less-than-fluid acronym: EGRRCPA.

But not Tuesday: not a single regulator – nor senator – referred to the legislation as “Ee-grrp-ka” or some other strange-sounding word. Not once. In fact, it seemed they assiduously avoided attempting to pronounce the acronym of the legislation.

Instead, they typically cited the bill number – S.2155 – to refer to the law; or, “2155,” or “the act,” “the economic growth act” (quickly corrected to include the rest of the words in the full name of the legislation), or just “economic growth.”

If one thing is clear from the Tuesday hearing, the pronunciation of “EGRRCPA” has been soundly rejected from use.