Forty-One Senators Call on Appropriators to Reject Anti-Environment Poison Pills

The lawmakers warn that policy riders harming environmental and public health would derail the Senate’s ability to pass spending bills

Washington, DC – Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW), and Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Ranking Member on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, led 39 of their Senate colleagues in urging Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-ME) and Vice Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) to keep all anti-environment policy provisions out of the FY2026 appropriations bills. 

These policy “riders” typically do not affect federal spending and instead aim to make changes to laws that would neither withstand the scrutiny of regular-order congressional debate nor advance without being attached to must-pass measures like appropriations bills.

“Anti-environment poison pills are giveaways to the fossil fuel industry, and they will poison our air, pollute our water, and put us on the fast track to climate-change-driven economic disaster.  They have no place in bipartisan spending bills,” said Ranking Member Whitehouse.

“Harmful anti-environment policy riders are poison pills that will sabotage funding the government. As the Ranking Member of the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, I’ve worked hard to keep these riders out. It’s an important principle to preserve,” said Merkley, the top Democrat on the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee.

In several of their partisan spending bills, House Republicans included riders aimed at stripping away a range of important environmental protections, including bedrock safeguards for our air, water, and federal lands.  These controversial and dangerous anti-environment riders circumvent regular order in Congress and could threaten a shutdown of the federal government. 

Senators Angela?Alsobrooks (D?MD), Tammy?Baldwin (D?WI), Michael?Bennet (D?CO), Richard?Blumenthal (D?CT), Lisa?Blunt?Rochester (D?DE), Cory?Booker (D?NJ), Maria?Cantwell (D?WA), Chris?Coons (D?DE), Catherine?Cortez?Masto (D?NV), Tammy?Duckworth (D?IL), Dick?Durbin (D?IL), John?Fetterman (D?PA), Kirsten?Gillibrand (D?NY), Maggie?Hassan (D?NH), Martin?Heinrich (D?NM), John?Hickenlooper (D?CO), Mazie?Hirono (D?HI), Tim?Kaine (D-VA), Mark?Kelly (D?AZ), Andy?Kim (D?NJ), Ben?Ray?Luján (D?NM), Ed?Markey (D?MA), Chris?Murphy (D?CT), Alex?Padilla (D?CA), Gary?Peters (D?MI), Jack?Reed (D?RI), Jacky?Rosen (D?NV), Bernie?Sanders (I?VT), Brian?Schatz (D?HI), Adam?Schiff (D-CA), Jeanne?Shaheen (D?NH), Elissa?Slotkin (D?MI), Tina?Smith (D?MN), Chris?Van?Hollen (D?MD), Mark?Warner (D?VA), Raphael?Warnock (D?GA), Elizabeth?Warren (D?MA), Peter?Welch (D?VT), and Ron?Wyden (D?OR) also cosigned the letter.

Text of the Senators’ letter is below, and the full letter is available HERE.

Dear Chair Collins and Vice Chair Murray,

Thank you for your ongoing work on Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26) appropriations bills. Each year the appropriations process presents opportunities for bipartisan support and funding for our most vital environmental programs. To help maintain regular order and ensure continued bipartisan support, we urge you to keep the FY26 appropriations bills free of any controversial, anti-environmental policy riders.

The inclusion of unrelated provisions has undermined the Senate’s ability in previous years to pass funding measures. We must stay vigilant and keep senseless, harmful, environmental policy riders out of FY26 appropriations bills