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Which bills co-sponsored by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez became law in 2021 or 2022?
Executive Summary
Two different strands of the available analyses reach different conclusions: one set of documents identifies specific bills that Alexandria Ocasio‑Cortez (AOC) cosponsored and that became law in 2021–2022, including federal facility namings and minor omnibus measures enacted in late 2022, while other summaries of congressional output report that none of the laws enacted in the 117th Congress originated from bills she sponsored and suggest she had zero primary bills become law during that term [1] [2]. The record offered here therefore shows clear examples of laws that list AOC as a cosponsor and were enacted in 2022, but also shows competing summaries—rooted in different definitions of “became law” (sponsor vs. cosponsor) and in different data compilations—that must be reconciled [1] [3] [4].
1. Evidence of enacted measures that list AOC as a cosponsor — naming laws and targeted acts
The most concrete itemization from the supplied analyses cites at least two specific measures that were enacted in late 2022 and that the source links to AOC’s legislative activity: a U.S. Postal Service facility naming in Suffern, New York, enacted as Public Law 117‑294 on December 27, 2022, and the Empowering the U.S. Fire Administration Act, enacted as Public Law 117‑246 on December 20, 2022. Those summaries present the enactment dates and public law numbers and treat AOC as involved among the bill’s supporters, indicating she cosponsored or was associated with measures that were folded into larger enacted statutes [1]. These are concrete legal enactments occurring in 2022 and are described in the provided material as having passed and been signed into law late that year [1].
2. Conflicting tallies: no laws “by” AOC vs. many cosponsorships that became law
Separate summaries emphasize a different framing: reports counting laws “authored by” or “introduced by” AOC in the 117th Congress conclude she had zero bills she introduced become law, even when accounting for incorporation into other measures, while also noting she cosponsored hundreds of bills (378 cosponsored bills reported) [2] [3]. That framing leads to headlines saying AOC “had no laws enacted” in 2021–2022, which is accurate under an authorship metric but misleading if the question is strictly about cosponsorship and whether bills she cosponsored became law. The data provided explicitly flag this distinction: authorship counts versus cosponsorship counts yield different conclusions and explain the apparent contradiction across sources [2].
3. Broader context: omnibus bills and bipartisan measures muddy the waters
The supplied analyses also describe AOC’s involvement in or association with omnibus spending measures and larger bipartisan packages in 2021–2022 that contained funding and statutory language benefiting her district, and note the June 2022 bipartisan gun legislation as an example of large collaborative enactments [5] [6]. Large omnibus bills commonly incorporate numerous provisions and naming measures that list many members as cosponsors or supporters; the presence of AOC’s name on staff summaries or press releases about such packages does not always translate into primary sponsorship, but it does mean she participated in measures that secured enacted funding or statutory changes for 2022 [5] [6]. This helps explain why some enacted public laws include provisions tied to her priorities while author-count tallies still read as “zero.”
4. Specific high-profile laws sometimes reported as cosponsored by AOC — mixed confirmation
One of the supplied analyses asserts that AOC cosponsored major 2021–2022 enactments such as the COVID‑19 Hate Crimes Act, the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, and the Emmett Till Antilynching Act as examples of co‑sponsored bills that became law [4]. That account offers high‑profile examples of bipartisan enactments from 2021–2022 and portrays AOC as a cosponsor of at least some floor‑passed measures. However, other documents in the packet do not enumerate these same acts as part of her enacted‑law tally and focus instead on the naming and administrative acts in late 2022. The divergence reflects differences in reporting scope and the specific lists each analyst drew from congressional records; the materials provided do not include a single reconciled roll‑call cosponsor list for each enacted law to fully confirm every asserted cosponsorship [4] [7].
5. Bottom line and what remains to be verified for a definitive list
The supplied analyses collectively establish that AOC cosponsored many bills in 2021–2022 and that some enacted measures in late 2022 bear her cosponsorship or were credited to her office in press releases (notably postal facility naming and the Fire Administration measure) [1] [5]. At the same time, authoritative tallies that count laws “introduced by” a member place her at zero laws enacted in the 117th Congress, creating a definitional split that explains conflicting headlines [2]. To produce a definitive, itemized list of every bill AOC cosponsored that became law in 2021–2022 would require cross‑checking official congressional enactment records (public law texts and the congressional cosponsor roster for each public law) against the cosponsor lists for each enacted bill; the materials here point to examples and to the definitional reason for disagreement but do not include a fully reconciled cosponsor-by-public-law table [1] [2] [4].