Today, a coalition of nearly 200 organizations, including People For the American Way, took a stand against another tactic that special interests have attempted to use to exert outsized influence over the political process – harmful policy riders attached to must-pass appropriations bills in order to advance ideological agendas rather than fund must-needed programs and services for the American people.
Far-right members of Congress take a dislike to something, say . . . the critical reproductive and preventive healthcare services offered by Planned Parenthood, and they write a line or two into an appropriations bill that says that government money cannot be used for that purpose. All kinds of programs and laws are subject to this kind of indirect assault: Just prohibit any money from being spent on it.
In its letter, the coalition urges President Obama and members of Congress to oppose any funding bill that contains such dangerous proposals.
With the passage of the framework bill for funding the government, attention now turns to how to allot the monies and what may be attached. Appropriations bills have been used before to undermine essential safeguards through “policy riders” – provisions that address extraneous policy not funding issues, and are slipped into appropriations bills to win approval as part of must-pass funding legislation. These are measures that the public opposes, and the President would likely veto as standalone legislation. The American people support policies to restrain Wall Street abuses and ensure safe and healthy food and products, to provide for clean air and water and keep workplaces safe, to prevent consumer rip-offs and corporate wrongdoing, and to ensure continued access to vital health care services.
These inappropriate riders are intended to advance the priorities of special interest donors and supporters. They have become the “new earmarks,” but they are actually far worse than the old earmarks, because they have vastly greater reach and consequence for the American people. Some Members of Congress have even gone so far as to say they are willing to shut down the entire government over outrageous policy riders like the defunding of Planned Parenthood which provides health services to millions of low-income Americans.
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We urge Members of Congress and Senators to oppose flawed funding proposals such as the non-exhaustive list of examples above if they come to the floor attached to the omnibus funding package. We further urge the administration in the strongest possible terms to oppose any funding package that includes these or any other dangerous legislative proposals. If included in a final package, any ideological policy riders would undo key safeguards and protections for Main Street.
Think the EPA should be able update air quality standards?
How about the SEC's ability to require political disclosures from publicly traded companies?
The FDA and drug safety labeling?
That's what we're talking about here.