Groups Decry 'Poison Pill' Riders On Funding Bill To Avert Shutdown

"Several special-interest groups are worried that Republican appropriators will attach "poison pill" policy riders affecting the environment and public lands to the 2017 funding bill in the scramble to avoid a government shutdown at the end of April.

Last-minute negotiations on Capitol Hill to fund the government past April 28 are "an opportunity for things to be done in the dark of night, without adequate public scrutiny," Public Citizen President Robert Weissman said during a phone call with reporters today.

The briefing, held by the Clean Budget Coalition, also included representatives from the League of Conservation Voters, Planned Parenthood and the Center for American Progress.

Among the groups' concerns are "nearly 150 anti-environmental policy riders" buried in various fiscal 2017 appropriations bills that "would make our air and water dirtier and harm our public lands and wildlife," said Tiernan Sittenfeld, senior vice president of government affairs at the League of Conservation Voters. She specifically mentioned proposals that she said would block clean water protections and gut the 1906 Antiquities Act, the law that allows presidents to designate national monuments on public land."

Kellie Lunney reports for Greenwire April 5, 2017.