No Red-Meat Riders, House GOP Appropriators Tell Hardliners

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.”