Press Release

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Clean Budget Coalition today congratulated Congress on removing nearly all of the House GOP’s 560+ new poison pill policy riders from the package of six funding bills due today, clearing the way for final passage and the beginning of the FY 25 budget cycle.

Even though virtually all of the legacy riders from past budget cycles remained, only two new poison pills were added to the March 22 minibus. The previous minibus containing the other six annual appropriations bills passed on March 8 and included only four new poison pills. 

“That so few poison pills became law after we were threatened with so many is a big victory for ordinary Americans and for common sense in the annual budget process,” said Lisa Gilbert, executive vice president of Public Citizen and co-chair of the Clean Budget Coalition. “Spending bills are no place for attacks on women’s reproductive rights, our democracy, our environment, communities of color, LGBTQ+ Americans, and more. The Clean Budget Coalition is extremely grateful to all the lawmakers – especially the appropriators and caucus leaders – who fought for well over a year to remove the extreme and harmful riders that never belonged in the first place.”

The Clean Budget Coalition will continue to oppose poison pill riders in the upcoming FY 25 spending packages and is vowing to fight for the removal of several dozen legacy riders that have accumulated over the years.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congress is expected to vote this week on a consolidated minibus of the six spending bills due by March 8, which excluded most of the poison pill policy riders House Republicans added to their draft spending bills. Lisa Gilbert, executive vice president of Public Citizen and co-chair of the Clean Budget Coalition, released the following statement:

“The fight against partisan poison pill policies isn’t over. As we turn to the second ‘minibus,’ we must redouble our efforts to keep out toxic provisions that would harm consumers, our health, our environment, and take away our choices. The Clean Budget Coalition urges Members of Congress, Senators, and the White House to hold the line on riders as we head towards the second, March 22 funding deadline.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In response to the White House meeting with the Four Corners to avoid a government shutdown, Lisa Gilbert, executive vice president of Public Citizen and co-chair of the Clean Budget Coalition, released the following statement via video:

“Reportedly 95% of the budget deal is done, and extreme MAGA poison pill demands are the outstanding topics in the negotiations. That their contentious, unpopular riders are the sticking point means that the House GOP would be directly responsible for any shutdown. Speaker Johnson is seemingly aware of this and hopefully will choose to govern and keep us from the brink. As we all know, there are real life consequences to regular people for shutting down the government.”

President Joe Biden invited the “Big Four” leaders — House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — to the White House on Tuesday morning to discuss the standoff over the annual spending bills. Without a resolution or another short-term stopgap, a partial government shutdown will begin this weekend.

Embarrassed by their lack of accomplishments, MAGA House Republicans see the must-pass spending bills as their best chance to pass harmful policies that could not become law on their own merits. They’ve added more than 560 partisan poison pills to their draft spending bills, and according to multiple press reports, the fight has come down to whether or not to include these measures. The White House, House Democrats, Senate Democrats, and even Senate Republicans have already repeatedly rejected the idea of packing spending bills with non-spending matters.

Many of the poison pills are culture war provisions that attack women, immigrants, people of color, and LGBTQ+ Americans. Others double-down on the lies behind the January 6th insurrection, fuel gun violence, and codify climate denial into law. Many attack abortion rights, block access to reproductive health care, and roll back widely available contraception. Some would let businesses steal from workers and scam consumers. Still others fuel misinformation, corruption, and financial crime. All of them must be removed.

In addition to hundreds of these harmful measures, many of the poison pills are beyond absurd. From bans on drag queens and pride flags to one-dollar salaries for top Cabinet officials to special favors for crypto bros, House Republicans have added dozens of measures that strain credulity. To be clear, they are risking a government shutdown over keeping cigarettes more addictive, interfering with local D.C. traffic laws, and finding out who left a dime bag of cocaine in the White House. The annual spending bills are no place for any of this nonsense.

Despite many attempts to get rid of them, poison pills that have become law through the appropriations process are very rarely repealed. As Clean Budget Coalition Co-Chair Lisa Gilbert told The Washington Post, “Once they go in, in a single appropriations cycle, they don’t come out in the next one.” That is why it is so crucial for the White House, Democrats in both chambers, and Senate Republicans to remain firm in their commitment to spending bills free from toxic poison pills.

Lisa Gilbert and other Clean Budget Coalition leaders are available to speak with reporters, columnists, and editorial board members about the dangers of poison pills both before and after the Tuesday morning’s “Big Four” meeting at the White House. Please contact David Rosen at drosen@citizen.org to speak with them.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Republican appropriators reportedly told hardliners in their conference on Wednesday that “they have no chance of exacting the kinds of ‘poison pill’ riders that the House approved in GOP-only spending bills,” and urged conservatives to “drop their focus on other poison-pill amendments.” Lisa Gilbert, executive vice president of Public Citizen and co-chair of the Clean Budget Coalition, released the following statement:

“Poison pill riders are toxic measures that have nothing to do with funding our government and have no place in the annual spending bills. These ideological policies could never proceed without attaching them to a must-pass bill and should not be allowed as part of government funding legislation.

“Once provisions that harm our environment, the financial sector, reproductive care, and more become law as part of an annual spending bill, it is almost impossible to remove them in future cycles – effectively making bad policy permanent. We simply cannot allow this to happen.

“Republican appropriators were right to school their caucus in this manner. All harmful poison pills must be dropped.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Republicans have added more than 250 new poison pill policy riders as floor amendments to their draft spending bills, the Clean Budget Coalition has found. This brings the total number of new poison pills across all 12 spending bills drafted by House Republicans to around 560. 

“Bills with hundreds of outrageous poison pills are not a serious basis for negotiations,” said Lisa Gilbert, executive vice president of Public Citizen and co-chair of the Clean Budget Coalition. “The White House, Senate Democrats, and even Senate Republicans have repeatedly and emphatically rejected harmful riders in federal spending legislation. With less than 20 legislative days until the next funding deadline, House Republicans are still wasting precious time on far-right fantasies that can’t and won’t become law.”

Among the hundreds of adopted floor amendments are multiple poison pills that would:

• Reduce the salaries of various department heads and cabinet officials to $1;
• Defund various diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and initiatives;
• Block President Joe Biden’s executive orders on climate change;
• Stop agencies from considering the social cost of greenhouse gasses;
• Prohibit COVID-19 vaccination and masking requirements;
• Disallow remote work for federal employees;
• Thwart new regulations whose economic impacts are expected to exceed $100 million, regardless of the net benefits;
• Attack immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, voting rights, endangered species, clean energy, and more.

The Clean Budget Coalition, which has been tracking poison pill riders since the spring, is calling on lawmakers to reject any final spending bills that contain them. 

For Immediate Release: Nov. 30, 2023

Contact: David Rosen, drosen@citizen.org

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congress should reject the U.S. House Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) appropriations bill for fiscal year 2024, which is expected to be voted on this week, 105 groups in the Clean Budget Coalition said in a letter sent today.

“The FY24 FSGG bill is an unredeemable, unserious piece of legislation and we urge all Members to vote against it. It is also another example of overreaching abuse of the appropriations process, as all of the funding bills proposed by the GOP House include poison pill riders and proposed amendments that are simply inappropriate,” the letter reads. “The FSGG bill brings Congress no closer to reaching agreement to fund the government in a year already marred by perilous standoffs that have left the American people shaking their heads with disgust.”

The House FSGG bill would impose a nearly 60% reduction in programmatic funding, with massive reductions to agencies that protect children, workers, and seniors. It would cut funding for the agency working to reduce annoying robocalls and zero out funding for election security grants during a presidential election cycle.

The bill also contains numerous poison pill policy riders, including ones that would stop disclosure rules on secret corporate political spending, prevent the IRS from developing free filing software, block regulators from requiring publicly traded companies to disclose their climate-related risks, prohibits D.C. from using its own local funds to provide coverage for abortion care, and much more.

In contrast with its counterpart legislation in the U.S. Senate – which passed committee unanimously in July – the overtly partisan House FSGG bill is not a serious effort at governance, the coalition maintains. The House should take its cues from the Senate, which recently passed a three-bill appropriations package with 85 votes.

For Immediate Release: Nov. 7, 2023
Contact: David Rosen, drosen@citizen.org

WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Appropriations Republicans have loaded up their draft annual spending bills with at least 15 poison pill policy riders that fuel gun violence. The Clean Budget Coalition, which is tracking the poison pills added to federal spending bills, has repeatedly called on Congress to remove all of these harmful measures. Gun riders include:

Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies

• The Multiple Firearms Reporting Rider would eliminate requirements for licensed firearm dealers to report to the U.S. Department of Justice on the sale of multiple rifles or shotguns to the same individual.
• The Ghost Guns Rider would forbid implementation, enforcement, and legal defense of a rule to regulate ghost guns, a weapon of choice for criminals.
• The Stabilizing Brace Definition Rider would forbid implementation, enforcement, and legal defense of a rule that clarifies which factors are considered by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) when evaluating firearms equipped with a purported stabilizing brace or other rearward attachment. Those factors determine whether the weapons are subject to regulation.
• The Gun Violence EO Rider would block administration and enforcement of President Joe Biden’s Executive Order 14092 on reducing gun violence.
• The Recent Gun Rules Rider would block implementation of any measure, regulation, or guidance issued or finalized by ATF after January 21, 2021, effectively blocking many of the Biden administration’s current and future efforts to reduce gun violence.
• The Gun Buyback Rider would block funds for gun buyback and relinquishment.
• The Red Flag Rider would block implementation of red flag laws or extreme risk protection orders that keep guns out of the hands of those prone to violence.
• The Demand 2 Rider would block the Demand 2 program unless reporting thresholds are modified. That program is designed to increase oversight of federal firearm licensees with a high number of sales of guns used in crimes within three years of their purchase
• The Gun Confiscation Rider would require notification and hearing opportunities for gun owners prior to the confiscation of a firearm – putting law enforcement officers at risk.
• The New Gun Rules Rider would prohibit the study of, preparation for, or proposal of any future administrative or executive actions that would be interpreted as a restriction on the production, purchase, sale, or transfer of any firearm unless expressly authorized by Congress.
• The ATF Civil Actions Rider would eliminate funds to advise, promote, or support any civil actions to which ATF is not a named party against any person purported to be subject to the regulation and oversight of the agency.
• The Stabilizing Brace Tracking Rider would block the ATF’s ability to classify, tax, or register any firearm with an attached stabilizing brace, like the one used in the mass shooting at Christian Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee in March 2023.

Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies

• The Firearms on Public Lands Rider would allow firearms on public lands managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Financial Services and General Government

• The Out-of-State Gun Permits Rider would allow an individual with a valid weapons carry permit from any state or territory to possess and carry a concealed handgun in areas governed by the District of Columbia and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.
• The IRS Guns Rider would prevent the IRS from purchasing firearms or ammunition above the levels in the agency’s possession as of July 13, 2023. This rider stems from the right-wing conspiracy theory that the IRS is stockpiling firearms to initiate an assault against Americans and to prevent Americans from accessing ammunition during an ammo shortage.

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