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In
legislative procedure A bill is proposed legislation under consideration by a legislature. A bill does not become law until it is passed by the legislature as well as, in most cases, approved by the executive. Once a bill has been enacted into law, it is called an '' ...
, a rider is an additional provision added to a
bill Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Plac ...
or other measure under the consideration by a
legislature A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its p ...
, having little connection with the subject matter of the bill. Some scholars identify riders as a specific form of
logrolling Logrolling is the trading of favors, or ''quid pro quo'', such as vote trading by legislative members to obtain passage of actions of interest to each legislative member. In organizational analysis, it refers to a practice in which different o ...
,Philip L. Dubois, ''Lawmaking by Initiative: Issues, Options and Comparisons'' (Algora, 1998), p. 126. or as implicit logrolling. Others distinguish riders from logrolling.Michael D. Gilbert
Single Subject Rules and the Legislative Process
67 ''University of Pittsburgh Law Review'' 803.
Adding riders to legislation is not permitted in legislatures bound by a
single-subject rule The single-subject rule is a rule in the constitutional law of some jurisdictions that stipulates that some or all types of legislation may deal with only one main issue. One purpose is to avoid complexity in acts, to avoid any hidden provisions t ...
.


United States


Federal legislation

In the
U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is Bicameralism, bicameral, composed of a lower body, the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives, and an upper body, ...
, riders have been a traditional method for members of Congress to advance controversial measures without building coalitions specifically in support of them, allowing the measure to move through the legislative process: "By combining measures, the legislative leadership can force members to accept a measure that might not survive alone because they want the entire bill to pass."Glen S. Krutz & Samuel C. Patterson, ''Hitching a Ride: Omnibus Legislating in the U.S. Congress'' (Ohio State University Press, 2001), pp. 5-6. Since the 1980s, however,
omnibus bill An omnibus bill is a proposed law that covers a number of diverse or unrelated topics. ''Omnibus'' is derived from Latin and means "to, for, by, with or from everything". An omnibus bill is a single document that is accepted in a single vote by a ...
s have become more common: these bills contain provisions, sometime important provisions, on an array of policy areas, and "are powerful for focusing attention away from controversial items to other main items" that either have broad support or are viewed as necessary, "must-pass" measures (such as
appropriation bill An appropriation, also known as supply bill or spending bill, is a proposed law that authorizes the expenditure of government funds. It is a bill that sets money aside for specific spending. In some democracies, approval of the legislature is ne ...
s). While members of Congress often use riders to attempt to kill a piece of legislation, "omnibus bills are pursued in order to get something passed." When the veto is an all-or-nothing power as it is in the
United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven ar ...
, the executive must either accept the riders or reject the entire bill. The practical consequence of the custom of using riders is to constrain the veto power of the
executive Executive ( exe., exec., execu.) may refer to: Role or title * Executive, a senior management role in an organization ** Chief executive officer (CEO), one of the highest-ranking corporate officers (executives) or administrators ** Executive dir ...
. The
Line Item Veto Act of 1996 The Line Item Veto Act was a federal law of the United States that granted the President the power to line-item veto budget bills passed by Congress, but its effect was brief as the act was soon ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in '' ...
was passed to allow the
President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...
to veto single objectionable items within bills passed by
Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...
, but the
Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
struck down the act as
unconstitutional Constitutionality is said to be the condition of acting in accordance with an applicable constitution; "Webster On Line" the status of a law, a procedure, or an act's accordance with the laws or set forth in the applicable constitution. When l ...
in '' Clinton v. City of New York''. Riders may be unrelated to the subject matter of bills to which they are attached and are commonly used to introduce unpopular provisions. For example, a rider to stop
net neutrality Network neutrality, often referred to as net neutrality, is the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) must treat all Internet communications equally, offering users and online content providers consistent rates irrespective of co ...
was attached to a bill relating to military and veteran construction projects. Another rider has been the
Hyde Amendment In U.S. politics, the Hyde Amendment is a legislative provision barring the use of federal funds to pay for abortion, except to save the life of the woman, or if the pregnancy arises from incest or rape. Before the Hyde Amendment took effect in ...
which since 1976 has been attached to
Appropriation Bill An appropriation, also known as supply bill or spending bill, is a proposed law that authorizes the expenditure of government funds. It is a bill that sets money aside for specific spending. In some democracies, approval of the legislature is ne ...
s to prevent
Medicaid Medicaid in the United States is a federal and state program that helps with healthcare costs for some people with limited income and resources. Medicaid also offers benefits not normally covered by Medicare, including nursing home care and pers ...
paying for most
abortions Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregnan ...
. Another was the
Boland Amendment The Boland Amendment is a term describing three U.S. legislative amendments between 1982 and 1984, all aimed at limiting U.S. government assistance to the Contras in Nicaragua. The first Boland Amendment was part of the House Appropriations Bill ...
in 1982 and 1983 to restrict financing of the Contras in Nicaragua. A recent notable example of a rider was in the
Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 The Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (, ) is a law that was enacted by the 111th United States Congress, by means of the reconciliation process, in order to amend the Affordable Care Act (ACA) (). The law includes the St ...
. An amended version of the
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and colloquially known as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by Presi ...
in 2010 that was signed into law by
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
only one week before, the amended bill included a rider for the
Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act The Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009 (SAFRA; ) is a bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives of the 111th United States Congress by Congressman George Miller that would expand federal Pell Grants to a maximum of $ ...
, whose
student loan A student loan is a type of loan designed to help students pay for post-secondary education and the associated fees, such as tuition, books and supplies, and living expenses. It may differ from other types of loans in the fact that the interest r ...
reform was completely unrelated to the broader bill's primary focus on
health care reform Health care reform is for the most part governmental policy that affects health care delivery in a given place. Health care reform typically attempts to: * Broaden the population that receives health care coverage through either public sector insur ...
.


State legislation

Riders exist at the state level as well. For just one example, a 2005 bill in
West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...
that was primarily focused on limiting the number of members that cities can appoint to boards of parks and recreation unexpectedly included a rider that made the
English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...
the official language of the state of West Virginia. Most members of the
West Virginia Legislature The West Virginia Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of West Virginia. A bicameral legislative body, the legislature is split between the upper Senate and the lower House of Delegates. It was established under Article VI o ...
did not realize that the rider had been entered into the bill until it had already passed both
state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...
houses A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...
. Then-West Virginia governor
Joe Manchin Joseph Manchin III (born August 24, 1947) is an American politician and businessman serving as the senior United States senator from West Virginia, a seat he has held since 2010. A member of the Democratic Party, Manchin was the 34th governor of ...
, although a personal supporter of the
English-only movement The English-only movement, also known as the Official English movement, is a political movement that advocates for the use of only the English language in official United States government operations through the establishment of English as the o ...
, promptly vetoed the bill due to a provision in the
Constitution of West Virginia The Constitution of the State of West Virginia West Virginia State Constitution is the supreme law of the U.S. state of West Virginia. It expresses the rights of the state's citizens and provides the framework for the organization of law and gover ...
that limits bills to one topic, which also makes riders ''
de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...
'' unconstitutional in West Virginia. To counteract riders, 43 of the 50
U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...
s have provisions in their state constitutions allowing the use of
line item veto The line-item veto, also called the partial veto, is a special form of veto power that authorizes a chief executive to reject particular provisions of a bill enacted by a legislature without vetoing the entire bill. Many countries have different ...
es so that the executive can veto single objectionable items within a bill, without affecting the main purpose or effectiveness of the bill.


Europe


France

The
Constitutional Council of France The Constitutional Council (french: Conseil constitutionnel; ) is the highest constitutional authority in France. It was established by the Constitution of the Fifth Republic on 4 October 1958 to ensure that constitutional principles and rules ...
has taken an increasingly hard view against riders, which it considers unconstitutional and contrary to the rules of procedure of the
parliamentary assemblies Parliamentary assembly may refer to: *National Parliament, a type of state legislative assembly body *Assembly of national parliaments, an inter-parliamentary institution of state national legislatures *International parliament, a supranational leg ...
. In 1985 the Council started striking down amendment to laws because they were unrelated to the subject of the law.Services of the
Constitutional Council of France The Constitutional Council (french: Conseil constitutionnel; ) is the highest constitutional authority in France. It was established by the Constitution of the Fifth Republic on 4 October 1958 to ensure that constitutional principles and rules ...

État de la jurisprudence du Conseil constitutionnel sur le droit d'amendement
/ref> Two special categories of riders merit mention: the "budgetary riders", attached to budget bills, and "social riders", attached to the budget bill for social security organizations, clauses that have no link to the budget or to the social security budgets, respectively.


Greece

Greece's constitutional provisions regarding parliamentary procedure forbid the parliamentary discussion of bills containing unrelated topics. Specifically, article 74, paragraph 5 of the Greek Constitution stipulates that a) a bill that contains provisions unrelated to its main subject is not introduced for discussion, and b) additions or amendments unrelated to the bill's main subject are not introduced for discussion.


Hungary

In 2005, the
Constitutional Court of Hungary The Constitutional Court of Hungary ( hu, Magyarország Alkotmánybírósága) is a special court of Hungary, making judicial review of the acts of the Parliament of Hungary. The official seat of the Constitutional Court is Budapest. Until 2012 ...
struck down the yearly national budget law in its entirety, because almost half of the paragraphs were not related to state fiscals at all, but modified 44 other existing pieces of legislation, which concerned health regulations, public education and foreign relations. This judicial ruling restricted the government's future options in bypassing due parliamentary debate and imposing certain reforms unilaterally.


United Kingdom

In some legislative systems, such as the
British Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative supremacy ...
, riders are prevented by the existence of the
long title In certain jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom and other Westminster-influenced jurisdictions (such as Canada or Australia), as well as the United States and the Philippines, primary legislation has both a short title and a long title. The ...
of a bill that describes the full purpose of the bill. Any part of the bill that falls outside the scope of the long title would not be permitted. However, legislators often bypass this limitation by naming a bill vaguely, such as by appending "and for connected purposes" to the name.


Philippines

The
Congress of the Philippines The Congress of the Philippines ( fil, Kongreso ng Pilipinas, italic=unset) is the legislature of the national government of the Philippines. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives of the Philippines, House of R ...
is prohibited to add riders in bills. According to Article VI, Section 26(1) of the
Constitution of the Philippines The Constitution of the Philippines (Filipino: ''Saligang Batas ng Pilipinas'' or ''Konstitusyon ng Pilipinas'', Spanish: ''Constitución de la República de Filipinas'') is the constitution or the supreme law of the Republic of the Philippines ...
, bills must espouse a particular subject which has to be conveyed in the title thereof.


Examples

* CISA Act (2015) * REAL ID Act (2005) *
Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act The Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act of 2003 is a United States federal law enacted as a rider within the PROTECT Act on April 30, 2003. A substantially similar Act was proposed during the previous Congress as the Reducing Americans' Vulnerab ...
(2003) * Lautenberg Amendment *
Hyde Amendment In U.S. politics, the Hyde Amendment is a legislative provision barring the use of federal funds to pay for abortion, except to save the life of the woman, or if the pregnancy arises from incest or rape. Before the Hyde Amendment took effect in ...
* The rider "Confirmation of antitrust status of graduate medical resident matching programs" was attached to the Pension Funding Equity Act and gave the
Association of American Medical Colleges The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. that was established in 1876. It represents medical schools, teaching hospitals, and academic and scientific societies, while providing serv ...
a victory in the antitrust case
Jung v. Association of American Medical Colleges ''Jung v. Association of American Medical Colleges'' was an antitrust class-action lawsuit that alleged collusion to prevent American trainee doctors from negotiating for better working conditions. The working conditions of medical residents ofte ...
.


See also

*
Christmas tree bill In the United States Congress, a Christmas tree bill is a political term referring to a bill that attracts many, often unrelated, floor amendments. A Christmas tree bill consists of many riders. The amendments which adorn the bill may provide spe ...
* Cornhusker Kickback *
Downsize DC Foundation The Downsize DC Foundation, formerly known as the American Liberty Foundation, is a policy advocacy organization which aims to limit the size of government in the United States through awareness and petitioning. Though it claims to be non-partisan ...
*
Omnibus spending bill An omnibus spending bill is a type of bill in the United States that packages many of the smaller ordinary appropriations bills into one larger single bill that can be passed with only one vote in each house. There are twelve different ordinary a ...


References

{{reflist *Rider Legislatures