There has been a lot of chatter lately over the "policy riders" that the Tea Party wants to shut the government down over if they don't get what they want. Some of them are well known - Planned Parenthood. NPR. PBS. Repeal of Healthcare Reform.
Others are not so well known, so I wanted to share a few here that accompany the more familiar of the bunch. You can find an extensive, but not comprehensive, list here.
I've selected a few choice examples to highlight.
Sec. 1517 Prohibits the Federal Reserve from transferring more than $80 million to the new Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.
Sec. 4046 Prohibits funds for a government sponsored “consumer products complaints database.”
Sec. 1281 Prohibits funding for the Wetlands Reserve Program.
Sec. 1746 Prohibits funding for EPA efforts to regulate greenhouse gases.
Sec. 4042 Prohibits funds for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Sec. 4045 Prohibits funds for the EPA to implement regulations to designate coal ash reside as hazardous waste.
Sec. 1516 Prohibits funding for the IRS to implement health care reform.
Sec. 1112 Prohibits transferring detainees from Guantanamo Bay.
Sec. 4036 Prohibits funds for UN construction within the US.
Sec. 4006 Blocks funds for the Federal Communications Commission to institute Net Neutrality rules.
Sec. 3002 Prohibits Recovery Act funds for signage.
Sec. 1339 Prohibits NASA from collaborating with China.
Sec. 4009 Prohibits funds to pay the salaries and expenses of the following “czars,” or special presidential advisers who are not required to go through the Senate confirmation process: Obama Care Czar, Climate Change Czar, Global Warming Czar, Green Jobs Czar, Car Czar, Guantanamo Bay Closure Czar, Pay Czar and Fairness Doctrine Czar.
Now, is this a set of serious fiscal proposals, or is it a radical political agenda designed to essentially "repeal the Obama administration" as Michele Bachmann once advocated?
ThinkProgress reminds us of the Riders which caused the 1995 shutdown
"Gingrich and Dole are offering the funding and higher-debt bills but have loaded them with ‘riders’ such as the Medicare bill that the president won’t accept and with other items such as limits on appeals by death-row inmates. [Denver Post, 11/15/95]
“One of the largest spending bills, for the Commerce, Justice and State Departments, is still being negotiated because it has riders on social issues like school prayer. The spending bill for the District of Columbia has been bogged down over a provision to bar Federal money to pay for abortions in the District and would prohibit public hospitals and clinics from offering abortion services.” [New York Times, 11/29/95]
“Congress has been unable to send any bill to the president because of the excessive number of anti-environmental riders.” [U.S. Newswire, 12/8/95]
It's remarkable how the riders of 1995 look reasonable compared to the riders of 2011, but in some ways, they are still the same.