Press Release

Nearly Three Out of Every Five Riders Aligned with Extremist Authoritarian Playbook

For Immediate Release: October 22, 2024

Contact: David Rosen, drosen@citizen.org
Brian Gumm, bgumm@progressivereform.org

WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Republicans have added more than 300 Project 2025 poison pills to their draft spending bills, according to the Clean Budget Coalition and the Center for Progressive Reform.

“Project 2025 is far more than just a blueprint for an authoritarian presidency. Republicans in Congress are already trying to pass Project 2025 into law by hiding hundreds of its most controversial provisions inside the must-pass annual spending bills,” said James Goodwin, policy director of the Center for Progressive Reform. “It is disturbing to see conservative lawmakers try to enact their extreme Project 2025 agenda through such an anti-democratic process.”

Congress must finalize the annual spending bills by December 20 regardless of who wins the election. The Clean Budget Coalition and its hundreds of member groups are calling on Congress to remove all the harmful riders from any final spending package, including the hundreds of Project 2025 poison pills.

An analysis of all of the riders in the draft FY 25 spending bills found that hundreds of them mirror Project 2025 objectives. They would:

Threaten Individual Rights

• Racial discrimination in healthcare. A rider in the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies appropriations bill would block a rule meant to prevent insurers from discriminating against individuals based on their race.
• Transgender discrimination in public schools. A rider in the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies appropriations bill would block the U.S. Department of Justice from enforcing nondiscrimination laws against public school employees who discriminate against transgender students.
• Abortion care for veterans. A rider in the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies appropriations bill would deny abortion care to veterans.

Privilege Religious Views

• Discriminatory religious beliefs. A rider in the Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill would officially sanction anti-LGTBQ+ discrimination by blocking covered agencies from punishing such discriminatory acts as long as the individual who commits them does so due to their religious beliefs.
• School prayer. A rider in the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies appropriations bill would bar the U.S. Department of Education from blocking school prayer programs in public schools.

Hand More Power to the President

• Undermine independence of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. A rider in the Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill would restructure the agency’s leadership giving the president more freedom to interfere in its decision-making and mission to protect consumers from financial industry scams and abuses.
• Unchecked immigration enforcement. A rider in the Homeland Security appropriations bill would give the president, through their Homeland Security Secretary, expanded powers to reprogram federal money to support enforcement by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Please reach out to the contacts listed above to speak with an expert.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – The House and the Senate are expected to pass a continuing resolution today that funds the government through December 20. Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen and co-chair of the Clean Budget Coalition, released the following statement:

“House Republicans have been staging and losing battles over government funding throughout this Congress, and this week is no exception. You might think that after so many years of losing these fights, Republicans would move on from their failed approach, but extremists in their party won’t let them.

“The problem is that House Republicans have two incompatible aims. On the one hand, they say they want to pass all 12 spending bills one at a time through regular order – a challenging but laudable procedural goal. On the other hand, they are demanding funding cuts that hurt programs Americans depend on and insisting on hundreds of noxious poison pills that neither the Senate nor the White House will agree to.

“All of this gamesmanship only brings the country closer to a painful, costly, and politically toxic government shutdown. And after having wasted weeks or months of precious time, the only way to stop a shutdown is with a package based on the relatively clean and bipartisan Senate-drafted spending bills. Versions of this story have played out so many times it’s like clockwork, and it’s exactly what has happened with the CR.

“Regular order means passing clean, bipartisan spending bills that provide ample funding to the agencies, programs, and services we all count on. Under divided government, our system forces bipartisanship on spending bills, no matter how hard MAGA extremists deny it.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Republicans are expected to vote Wednesday on a government funding extension through March 2025 that includes a harmful poison pill, the SAVE Act, and allows key programs to expire – harming public health, farmworkers, and border security. Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen and co-chair of the Clean Budget Coalition, released the following statement:

“After weeks of internal chaos, House Republicans are no closer to a funding extension that can pass both chambers and win approval from the White House. With each passing day, House Republicans are bringing us closer to a costly, disruptive, and painful government shutdown that nobody in either party wants, especially not weeks before a high-stakes election. This is no way to govern. 

“Speaker Johnson is letting MAGA extremists call the shots and sabotage the CR with a culture war poison pill that cannot become law. The SAVE Act is the ultimate poison pill, a destructive piece of policy that pretends we have a problem of non-citizens voting in this nation. This premise is categorically untrue.

“A clean CR is the only way forward. That was true weeks ago, true today, and will still be true if Congress breaches the September 30th funding deadline. The only question is how long it will take for Speaker Johnson to stand up to the MAGA extremists in his ranks and join the rest of the country – including Senate Republicans – in support of a clean, bipartisan bill.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Republicans plan to vote this week on a government funding extension through March 2025 that zeroes out election security grants and includes a harmful poison pill, the SAVE Act. That bill would require proof of citizenship for voting and make it far more difficult for many citizens to cast ballots. Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen and co-chair of the Clean Budget Coalition, released the following statement:

“Once again, House Republicans are letting MAGA extremists call the shots and sabotage the annual spending bills with culture war poison pills. The House GOP’s partisan and extreme CR is unacceptable, and it cannot pass in the Senate or clear the White House. It risks a costly and disruptive government shutdown just weeks before an election that nobody in either party wants. A clean CR is the only way forward. The only question is how long it will take for the House Republican leadership to reach that conclusion and pass a bipartisan bill.”

For Immediate Release: July 9, 2024

Contact: David Rosen, drosen@citizen.org

WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Republican appropriators have added at least 475 new poison pills to their draft annual spending bills, according to the Clean Budget Coalition, which is tracking them. This is in addition to around 60 legacy poison pills held over from previous cycles. All of these harmful measures must be removed from any final FY 25 spending package, the coalition maintains.

The 475 poison pill riders across the House’s 12 draft appropriations bills attack abortion rights, workers, immigrants, gun safety, climate, wildlife, clean air and water, clean energy, our democracy, LGBTQ+ Americans, veterans, students, pocketbook protections, financial industry safeguards, local control in the District of Columbia, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and more.

“475 poison pills is already similar in scale to what House Republicans proposed last year,” said Lisa Gilbert, executive vice president of Public Citizen and co-chair of the Clean Budget Coalition. “Once the July markups and floor amendments are complete, it’s likely we’ll be facing an unprecedented number of these toxic measures. None of these attacks on abortion rights, climate, our democracy, and more belong in spending bills, and all of them must be removed before any final spending package is passed and signed into law.”

The 160-Page-Long CJS Appropriations Bill Drafted by House Republicans Has Over 40 Pages of Poison Pills

WASHINGTON, D.C. – One quarter of the House GOP’s Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) appropriations bill is nothing but poison pills, the Clean Budget Coalition found after reviewing bill text.

Shockingly, the 160-page long CJS bill has more than 40 pages of poison pills that attack immigrants, gun safety, LGBTQ+ Americans, women’s health, diversity and inclusion efforts, our environment, anti-monopoly measures, trade policy, the U.S. Census, and more. The coalition found more than 80 individual poison pills in total.

“Simply deleting the poison pills in CJS would cut the overall bill length by 25% and focus the bill in on its intended purpose – funding government agencies and programs,” said Lisa Gilbert, executive vice president of Public Citizen and co-chair of the Clean Budget Coalition. “That’s exactly what we’re calling on both parties to do.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – With Pride Month just getting started, House Republicans have added at least 15 poison pill policy riders to their draft spending bills that attack the LGBTQ+ community – with same-sex marriages, transgender Americans, drag queens, and pride flags among their growing list of culture war targets.

The Clean Budget Coalition, which is tracking these measures, is calling on Congress to remove all of these harmful measures. So far, they include:

• Five poison pills that foster discrimination against same-sex marriages. Specifically, these measures would prohibit denial of funds to anyone who discriminates against a same-sex couple as long as they claim a religious belief or moral conviction that marriage should be a union of one man and one woman;
• Five poison pills that ban gender-affirming care – including surgeries, hormone treatments, medications, and anything that “promotes transgenderism” such as counseling;

• Three poison pills that ban pride flags at federal facilities both domestically and abroad; and
• Two poison pills that ban drag queens, alleging in the legislative text that drag performances “bring discredit” upon the military.

“Why are MAGA Republicans banning drag queens in the federal budget? Why are they shielding bigotry against same-sex partners and harassing transgender Americans? The answer is simple: to appease their radical authoritarian base,” said Lisa Gilbert, executive vice president of Public Citizen and co-chair of the Clean Budget Coalition. “Instead of writing spending bills that ensure people are safe, healthy, and housed, House Republicans are trying to roll back more than half a century of progress toward freedom and equality for everyone. All of these toxic poison pills must be removed from any final spending package.”

“In their first six appropriations bills, House Republicans are repeating last year’s tired playbook of choosing to undermine bipartisan work by bullying and targeting LGBTQ+ people, especially queer and trans youth,” said Melanie Willingham-Jaggers, executive director of GLSEN. “Legislators need to consider the message this sends to the next generation, when those in power choose the politics of hate over efforts to strengthen our communities. We urge appropriators to reject toxic policies that undermine access to care and civil rights protections for the LGBTQ+ community.”

“States across the country are targeting LGBTQ+ people and our families with a flood of new and extreme laws that ban our books, criminalize our health care, and endanger some of the most vulnerable youth in our country today,” said Mike Zamore, senior director of policy and government affairs for the ACLU. “These riders try to bring this campaign of hatred to every state in the nation, threatening health care access for transgender people wherever they live, making schools less safe for transgender students, and attempting to censor constitutionally-protected speech. Members of Congress must oppose these efforts and pass a clean budget in support of a government that is a protector of our freedom, not an enemy against it.”

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Republican appropriators added approximately 80 new poison pill riders to their draft Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) spending bill. Lisa Gilbert, executive vice president of Public Citizen and co-chair of the Clean Budget Coalition, released the following statement:

“From attacking abortion rights to making it more difficult to vote to meddling with local D.C. traffic laws, House Republicans have drafted a bill they know won’t pass. This bill is packed full of many of the same culture war riders, attacks on democracy, and special favors for corporate scammers that couldn’t pass in FY 24. House Republicans are wasting their time and everyone else’s by including these odious measures again. At every turn, Republicans are showing they would rather do the bidding of far right extremists and corporate predators than do their actual jobs. All of their poison pills must be removed from any final spending package.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Republicans have added at least 10 new poison pill policy riders to their draft Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies spending bill, according to the Clean Budget Coalition, which is tracking them. The new poison pills in the bill:

• Block executive orders on racial equity, diversity, and inclusion, the use of funding for offices to implement those policies, and bans Critical Race Theory;
• Ban gender affirming care and pride flags;
• Allow discrimination against same-sex marriages;
• Thwart measures to address COVID-19, including mask mandates; and
• Block at least half a dozen executive orders on clean energy and climate change.

“The House GOP’s culture war attacks in the annual spending bills are back with a vengeance, even as the rest of the country has moved on,” said Lisa Gilbert, executive vice president of Public Citizen and co-chair of the Clean Budget Coalition.

“This Military Construction bill shows the FY25 cycle is kicking off with a bad case of  deja vu when it comes to poison pills. House Republican appropriators appear to have learned nothing from their mistakes and failures in the last budget cycle. It’s more important than ever that lawmakers remain firm in their opposition to these toxic measures, and that future proposed bills omit them.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congress should pass clean FY25 spending bills with no poison pill policy riders, more than 200 groups said today in a letter to congressional lawmakers. The letter calls for members of Congress to remember the lessons of the FY24 budget cycle. 

“The FY24 federal budget negotiations were marred by frustrating delays that extended six months into the fiscal year, largely due to the persistent inclusion of policy riders and draconian cuts by House Majority lawmakers,” the letter reads.

“This not only hindered the timely allocation of resources essential for effective government operations and vital programs for everyday Americans, but also plunged the process into a state of uncertainty and confusion as Congress narrowly avoided multiple government shutdown deadlines.”

The Clean Budget Coalition led the fight to successfully remove nearly all of the 500 plus proposed poison pills from the FY24 spending bills, which passed as part of two minibus packages in March and April. 

In addition to no new poison pills in FY25, the groups are calling for the removal of more than 60 legacy riders that have accumulated in the federal budget over the past half century. These harmful measures attack abortion rights, harm school kids, fuel political corruption, thwart efforts to combat the climate crisis, punish the District of Columbia, and more. It is an unfortunate reality that once a poison pill rider is included in an appropriations package, it becomes very difficult to remove from future packages.

People across the United States deserve a budget that invests in our future and fully funds the services people and communities count on without blocking or rolling back essential public safeguards.