WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rep. Gerald Moss (R-OH), 61, held a press conference Tuesday to introduce what he called “the most commonsense piece of legislation this body has seen in a generation,” which staffers later confirmed is substantively identical to the Hartwell Infrastructure Accountability Act of 2019, a bill Moss voted against and publicly denounced as “a federal overreach of breathtaking audacity.”

The new bill, titled the American Infrastructure Transparency and Renewal Act, differs from the 2019 legislation in two respects: the word “federal” has been replaced with “American,” and the font in the submitted document is Arial rather than Times New Roman.

Moss’s office did not respond to questions about the discrepancy by press time, though a junior staffer was overheard asking a senior staffer whether anyone had “checked the archives on this one” approximately forty minutes before the press conference began.

“This is the kind of forward-thinking, never-been-done approach that Washington has been afraid of for too long,” said Moss, gesturing at a poster board rendering of the bill’s title.

“I remember the 2019 bill clearly,” said Rep. Donna Achebe, 58, (D-MI), who co-sponsored the original legislation. “I also remember Gerald calling it ‘a bureaucratic catastrophe dressed up in bipartisan clothing.’ I have the C-SPAN timestamp.”

Moss’s current bill has attracted four co-sponsors, two of whom also voted against the 2019 version.

At press time, Moss had released a statement praising his own bill’s “unprecedented bipartisan momentum,” defined as himself and a colleague from the same state who shares his last name.