Why the Civil and Human Rights Community Cares About Ideological Policy Riders
We need a clean budget with no harmful riders — one that protects our families and communities.

In February 2018, Congress reached a two-year budget deal, allowing legislators to finally move forward with the business of passing spending bills to fund the government. Between now and the March 23 deadline for passing an omnibus spending package for fiscal year 2018, much of the focus will be on how much funding different government agencies and programs will receive. But another important part of the negotiations will deal with ideological policy riders that some members will try to include in the must-pass spending package. The civil and human rights community is working to ensure that any final spending bill is free of ideological riders.
What is an ideological policy rider?
Riders are policy changes that are attached to important bills such as annual spending bills. Sometimes they include divisive ideological initiatives or unpopular provisions that could not pass on their own merits. Bypassing normal legislative process, lawmakers have attached these measures to must-pass appropriations bills as riders. Ideological riders often cover a wide range of issues that the civil rights community cares about, including everything from anti-environment provisions, to riders that restrict women’s access to health services, to proposals that would be harmful to campaign spending transparency.
The civil and human rights community is opposed to the inclusion of ideological riders. The types of riders that are particularly troubling include the following:
Immigration
In the last year, President Trump has created a Muslim ban, rescinded the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programs, and terminated Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for a number of vulnerable nations including Sudan, Haiti, and El Salvador. Many anti-immigrant policy riders were proposed throughout the House appropriations process. As such, we expect to see members try to push a number of anti-immigrant policy riders in the omnibus package. Anti-immigrant policy riders could withdraw federal funding from so-called “sanctuary cities,” a term which incorrectly implies that states and municipalities are refusing to work with federal immigration authorities. These riders could also limit access to reproductive health services for women detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Rather than trying to sneak harmful anti-immigrant riders into the omnibus package, Congress should focus its attention separately on finding a bipartisan legislative solution to the plight of Dreamers.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)
Potential poison pill riders in the FY18 omnibus could eliminate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s enforcement authority for the largest financial institutions and prohibit the CFPB from adopting or enforcing rules for payday loans that keep low-income people and families trapped in endless cycles of debt. Established in the wake of the financial crisis, the CFPB is the only financial oversight agency with a mandate to put the interests of consumers first. The CFPB was created to bring basic standards of fairness and transparency to financial products and services. Any riders that would reduce the CFPB’s supervisory and enforcement authority would be devastating to the mission of the CFPB and to the consumers it protects.
Public School Desegregation
In some cases, harmful ideological policy riders are routinely added into the appropriations bills year after year without new consideration. This is the case with the “anti-busing” language that has been in every appropriations bill since at least 1974. This rider prohibits the use of federal funds for transportation costs to achieve public school racial desegregation. It is particularly concerning to the civil rights community that such a provision continues to exist in 2018. Several civil rights groups (including our organization) have called on Congress to remove this rider that disallows the use of federal funds to provide students access to a quality education in a diverse environment.
Poison pill policy riders do not belong in spending bills. Spending bills are meant to fund our government, not to serve as vehicles for ramming through ideological policies that would not pass otherwise. Many of these riders could not become law on their own merits — even with one political party controlling both chambers of Congress and the White House. Americans have a right to expect a clean budget with no harmful riders. If lawmakers want to protect and serve the people in America, they should pass a clean budget with no harmful riders — one that protects our families and communities.







