Public Citizen brings attention to ‘poison pill’ amendments in congressional bills

We use the term “poison pill” to refer to amendments to legislation intended by the person introducing it to turn supporters of the bigger piece of legislation against it.

It’s an art mastered by congressional Republicans, who according to the watchdog group, Public Citizen, have introduced 113 poison pill amendments to legislation just in the past week.

“The sheer volume of dangerous riders being included in these draft bills is an overreach and an emergency,” said Lisa Gilbert, executive vice president of Public Citizen and co-chair of the Clean Budget Coalition. “We cannot allow policy that harms regular people, threatens our rights, hurts the environment, and does any number of other terrible things to ride-along with the appropriations package. We must put out this five-alarm fire by rejecting the inclusion of poison pills.”

Poison pills found in the past week:

• The Truck Speed Limit Rider would prohibit funds from being used by the U.S. Department of Transportation for any rulemaking requiring eighteen-wheeler trucks used in interstate commerce to be equipped with speed limiting devices.
• The RAISE Rider would cap funding at 5 percent for infrastructure investments targeted to historically disadvantaged communities and areas of persistent poverty.
• The Housing Discrimination Rider would bar the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development from using funds for the proposed Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule, published in January to fulfill the requirements of the Fair Housing Act. The rule requires HUD grantees to affirm that they will not discriminate against protected classes, including race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, familial status, and disability.
• The Power Plant Wastewater Rule Rider would stop the EPA from finalizing a proposed rule to reduce wastewater pollution from steam electric power plants, particularly coal-fired power plants.
• The Offshore Drilling Rider would create a new mandate that each five-year leasing program include at least two offshore oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico every year. This requirement would remove authority from the agency to decide the amount of lease sales needed to “best meet our national energy needs,” a requirement of existing law. It furthers the interests of the oil and gas industry at the expense of local communities and the climate.
• The Ancillary Use Mining Rider would give mining claimants the right to permanently occupy federal public lands, construct massive toxic waste dumps, and build roads and pipelines across those lands – an unprecedented giveaway of America’s cherished public lands to mining corporations, reversing over one hundred years of legal precedent.
• The Planned Parenthood Rider would prevent the health care provider from participating in health programs funded through the annual Labor-HHS bill. Planned Parenthood plays a critical role in providing quality health care to more than 2 million people each year. “Defunding” Planned Parenthood means blocking people from accessing critical preventive services like STI testing, breast and cervical cancer screenings, contraception, and sex education at Planned Parenthood health centers.
• The Teen Pregnancy Rider would eliminate funding for the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, while funding abstinence-only programs.
• The CRT Rider would prohibit funding for education, training, or professional development that uses, promotes, or teaches Critical Race Theory.
• The Latino Museums Rider would block funding for the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Latino and operation of the Molina Family Latino Gallery.
• The LGBTQ Discrimination Rider would prohibit implementation of the Biden administration’s executive order on gender identity and sexual orientation discrimination, which prevents and combats discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation, and fully enforces Title VII and other laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation.
• The Gender Affirming Care Rider would prohibit funds for surgical procedures or hormone therapies for the purposes of gender affirming care.
• The Student Sex Discrimination Rider would block the U.S. Department of Education from issuing a final rule to prevent sex discrimination and sex-based harassment at schools and a final rule to clarify how all students can participate in athletics.
• The Religious Student Groups Rider would deny funding to public colleges and universities that have taken action against religious student groups that discriminate or engage in other unlawful conduct based on their religious beliefs.
• The Student Debt Cancellation Rider would prohibit any broad-based student debt cancellation.
• The DEIA Rider would block policies or programs intended to promote diversity, equity, or inclusion stemming from Executive Orders 13985, 14035, and 14091.
• The Marriage Equality Rider would block funding to take action against a person who opposes marriage equality.
• The Pride Flag Rider would restrict which flags can be flown over federal facilities – and notably excludes pride flags.