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Fall 1999 Bulletin
'The Proliferation of Anti-Environmental "Riders" As we go to press, Congress is considering 58 budget riders that threaten to undo much of the progress our nation has made in protecting the air we breath and the water we drink. One rider will stop the Environmental Protection Agency from enforcing certain clean air standards for power plants and factories. Another will loosen the rules on mining companies dumping toxic wastes on public lands they lease from the government. And the list goes on. Despite the fact that these riders are specifically designed to benefit special interests at the expense of public health and safety, they stand a better than even chance of passing, simply because each rider is attached to a budget bill that must pass or the government shuts down. Is the rider related to the budget to which it is attached? Not necessarily. Will our elected representatives get a chance to debate the merits and vote on whether to attache the rider? Very Unlikely. Do members of our delegation participate in these shenanigans? Undoubtedly. What can you do? You can let your representatives know that you want them to stop circumventing the democratic process,and stop rolling back environmental protections through the use of anti-environmental riders. You can also contact the White House and encourage the President to use his veto pen to protect the environment for future generations. d (Jennifer Taylor, Program Associate with NMPIRG, contributed to this article)
End-Run on the Democratic Process and the Environment:
Since Republicans became the majority party in Congress, anti-environmental "riders" have proliferated at an alarming rate. What are budget riders? A back door way of making public policy, a budget rider is an amendment attached to a budget bill, which must pass to fund federal programs and agencies.
Please return to the Fall 1999 Bulletin Index.