Congress Must Pass a Clean Budget with No Poison Pills

Every year, unscrupulous lawmakers try to sneak harmful policies into the must-pass annual spending bills that have nothing to do with funding our government. Known as poison pill policy riders, these measures are little more than special favors for ideological extremists and big corporations. Most poison pills are highly controversial, wildly unpopular, and could not become law on their own merits.

Hundreds of organizations have joined together under the umbrella of the Clean Budget Coalition to oppose the inclusion of poison pills and other toxic amendments in the annual spending bills. We’re calling on Congress to pass clean FY 26 bills that fully fund the programs and services we all count on by the September 30th deadline.

Follow us on Bluesky.

Latest Poison Pill Rider Counts

The coalition has found more than 220 new poison pill riders in the draft spending bills authored by House Republicans. All of them must be removed from any final spending package. Here’s how many we found in each bill.

Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA: 15
Commerce, Justice, Science: 67
Defense: 15
Energy and Water: 10
Financial Services and General Government: TBD
Homeland Security: 20
Interior and Environment: 53
Labor, HHS, and Education: TBD
Legislative Branch: 6
Military Construction and Veterans Affairs: 6
State and Foreign Operations: 17
Transportation and HUD: 13

News and Resources

Contact Info

David Rosen, drosen@citizen.org, (202) 588-7742