Department Celebrates 50th Anniversary of Policy That Was Supposed to Be Temporary

The Department of Revenue Processing held a celebration Friday marking the 50th anniversary of Interim Policy 75-003, a temporary measure implemented in March 1975 that was intended to last six months and has since become the department's foundational operating framework. 'Fifty years of interim excellence,' read the banner above the sheet cake, which was frosted in the department's colors and featured a sugar-paste reproduction of the original policy memo. Interim Policy 75-003, titled 'Temporary Procedures for the Handling of Form 9-R During the Current Filing Backlog,' was drafted by a junior clerk named Stanley Provisional in response to a three-month processing delay caused by a broken microfiche reader. The policy introduced a temporary re-routing of Form 9-R through two additional departments, added three new approval steps, and created the position of Interim Compliance Coordinator. All of these measures remain in effect. 'We've tried to sunset it several times,' said current department head Lorraine Perpetual. 'But every time we propose removing the policy, someone points out that other policies now reference it, and removing it would require updating those policies, which would require new policies, which would require their own interim periods. It's easier to just leave it.' The Interim Compliance Coordinator position, originally intended to exist for six months, now employs twelve people across two offices. 'I've been the Interim Compliance Coordinator for twenty-two years,' said Frank Provisional-Martinez, who adopted his hyphenated surname 'in honor of the policy's creator and in recognition that this job is forever.' The celebration concluded with a toast to 'another fifty years,' which no one appeared to regard as a joke. A motion to officially reclassify the policy from 'interim' to 'permanent' was introduced and then tabled, as it would require amending the policy, triggering a new interim period.