Get Your Ideology Out of Federal Budget, 178 Groups Say to Congress
(COMMON DREAMS) Deirdre Fulton — Citing a lengthy list of “wildly inappropriate” provisions that have been attached to pending U.S. budget proposals, a coalition of 178 groups representing tens of millions of Americans is calling on President Barack Obama and Congress to oppose any federal appropriations bills that include “ideological” policy riders.
In a letter (pdf) sent Thursday to Obama and members of Congress, the organizations charge lawmakers with inserting controversial and unpopular measures—ones with “little or no connection to funding the government”—into must-pass legislation in order “to serve the narrow interests of particular industries at the expense of public health, safety, workers’ rights, financial security, science, and the environment.”
The missive, which is signed by a wide range of groups including Greenpeace, NAACP, National Organization for Women, Public Citizen, and United Steelworkers, describes such riders as “the new earmarks,” but notes they are even worse in that “they have vastly greater reach and consequence for the American people.”