Rider

An amendment that is not germane, or pertinent, to the subject matter of a bill is called a rider. Riders are most frequently used in the Senate, where nongermane amendments are considered fair play. But they also turn up in the House of Representatives, even though House rules prohibit them.

A rider is often a proposal that would be unlikely to become law as a separate bill, either because one chamber would not pass it or because the president would veto it. Riders are more likely to be accepted if they are attached to urgent legislation, such as bills providing funds to operate the federal government. Emergency [Page p388]funding bills, called continuing resolutions, have become magnets for unrelated amendments because they must be passed quickly to keep government agencies from shutting down. For example, a continuing resolution approved in 1984 included, almost as a footnote, a sweeping revision of federal criminal law. omnibus bills passed at the end of a session when regular government funding bills have stalled also have attracted riders. The massive one Congress approved in 1998 included an array of unrelated measures ranging from a tax moratorium on Internet commerce to a plan to expand the number of U.S. visas for foreign computer workers to an extension of the duck-hunting season in Mississippi.

Sometimes a rider is used as a “sweetener” to win the president's approval of a measure he opposes. A tax bill that President Ronald Reagan had vowed to veto became law in 1983 after Congress attached to the measure a trade plan favored by the president. Other riders have been used to rescue bills that had become stalled in hostile committees. A notable example occurred in 1960 when Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson made good on a promise to act on civil rights legislation. When the Senate Judiciary Committee failed to produce such legislation, Johnson called up a minor bill that had been passed by the House, and invited senators to offer civil rights amendments to it. A landmark civil rights measure was enacted several months later.

Riders may also obstruct the passage of a bill. In 1997 President Bill Clinton vetoed an emergency disaster relief bill because it contained several controversial riders he opposed, including one that sought to change the way the 2000 census would be conducted and another that would have given Congress more leverage in future budget negotiations with the White House. Congress succumbed to public pressure and passed the bill without the extraneous provisions.

Tax legislation is frequently subject to riders. The Constitution says tax bills must originate in the House, but the Senate Finance Committee has learned how to initiate major tax proposals by attaching them to minor bills passed by the House. That happened with a far-reaching tax increase in 1982.

The Senate also has a fondness for loading tax or trade bills with nongermane amendments that benefit special interests. Such a measure is known as a Christmas tree bill.

Even though House rules prohibit nongermane amendments, members have found ways to get around the restrictions. Antiabortion riders have been a regular feature of annual government appropriations bills since the 1970s. They have met the House germaneness standard because they have been worded to restrict the use of federal funds for abortions. The House may also waive—or ignore—its germaneness rule, a practice that sometimes makes for strange legislative bedfellows. A 1980 House bill, for example, simultaneously set new nutritional requirements for infant formulas and increased federal penalties for marijuana trafficking. A House bill enacted into law in 1991 included not only its original provisions on the trading status of Czechoslovakia and Hungary but also provisions expanding unemployment benefits and imposing sanctions to limit the spread of chemical and biological weapons. House insistence on a rider restoring some Medicare fees to doctors scuttled attempts in late 2002 to reach agreement on legislation extending unemployment benefits.

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