Acts Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jimmy Carter

As a direct result of the oil crisis of 1973 and 1974, the Department of Energy Organization Act increased the importance of energy management and procurement at a federal government level and created a new (twelfth) cabinet position in the Secretary of Energy. Even though Carter was a Democrat, he appointed Republican James Schlesinger to the position. One of Schlesinger's contributions to the post was the Carbon Dioxide Effects and Assessment Program - at a time when greenhouse gases and climate change were still far from the public's perception.

Answer: Lyndon B Johnson

The Economic Opportunity Act was a key legislative effort in Johnson's War on Poverty. Its two key improvements were the establishment of additional training opportunities for poor, especially among the young and uneducated and the provision of key loans for those who needed them to establish or secure an existence, particularly very small businesses and agricultural efforts.

Answer: Ronald Reagan

Passed in the first year of Reagan's presidency, the Economic Recovery Tax Act aimed at stimulating economic growth through a massive tax cut at all levels. It backfired, creating a huge deficit and sending interest rates to unsustainable levels. It was effectively revoked a year later and that equally significant tax increase finally turned the economy, which had suffered throughout the 1970s, around to result in what is now known as the "Reagan Recovery".

Answer: Gerald Ford

The name of this act alone should be a pointer that it is quite a few years old - it was passed in 1975, under Gerald Ford and effectively established the current special education system in the United States, in turn significantly improved and expanded by 1990's Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

It also for the first time codified that special education should be integrated into normal classes and schools wherever possible, allowing segregated schooling for disabled children only for those cases where integration would not be possible.

Answer: Franklin D Roosevelt

Passed a mere five days after President Roosevelt's inauguration in March 1933, this act was the first step of stabilizing a banking system that was, as an effect of the Great Depression, in the process of collapsing. During the first days of March 1933, all states declared banking holidays which were extended to a nationwide suspension of banking activities by Roosevelt on March 6.

The act was the first step towards a reopening of the system and was followed by many further emergency measures, including the well-known ban on private gold ownership passed in April.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was established as part of this chain of events.

Answer: Dwight D Eisenhower

Officially known as Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 (acts of the same title have been passed in many other years from 1921 to 1987), this act is the one that established the Interstate system. The system's design was influenced by the Lincoln Highway, the first coast-to-coast highway in the US as well as the German Autobahn system.

It not only meant to link all major cities and industrial centers in the United States but also provided all Air Force bases with direct access to these highways for maximum readiness in case of emergency.

Answer: Bill Clinton

Although the name may sound like this act, passed in 1996, would strengthen the rights of illegal immigrants, it actually did the opposite - it streamlined the process of removal of illegals and forbade them various privileges during the proceedings, such as explicitly denying them any access to higher education.

It also significantly expanded the list of criminal offenses (known as "aggravated felonies") incompatible with immigration of any kind.

Answer: Richard Nixon

Even though it was not the most influential of the several environmental protection acts signed by President Nixon, I have chosen it for this quiz because it provided for more general protections and procedures than the others. It was passed along with the Clean Air Act of 1970 and the Clean Water Act of 1972, all as a reaction to the growing environmental awareness and resulting protests in the late 1960s. Nixon's environmental acts are still the basis of the current environmental legislation in the United States.

Answer: George W Bush

One of the most controversial acts of the Bush administration, this law established a standards-based educations system whose main goal was to provide 100% of students, regardless of background and ability, with a satisfactory set of skills and proficiency to succeed in life. Given this goal, these standards had to be set at a relatively low level if schools wanted to be compliant and, while the act did provide advantages to less privileged students, it also reduced the available resources for any other activities, such as furthering above-average talent or "nonessential" skills.

The act was ultimately repealed and responsibility for the educational goals placed back into the hands of the individual states in 2015.

Answer: Barack Obama

I could not let this quiz end without what is probably the one of the thousands of "Act"s that the most people could name in the United States could name - even if they know it only by their more colloquial name of "Obamacare". The key aspect of the act was to mandate a basic health insurance level available to everyone regardless of age, social status and preexisting conditions as well as requiring every citizen to have at least a basic health coverage plan, whether provided through their employer, a publicly funded system or a private insurance meeting the provisions of the act.

The act still faces major opposition especially among Republicans, but several attempts to repeal it in 2017 narrowly failed.