House Republicans Add Hundreds of Poison Pills as Floor Amendments to Spending Bills
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