Like a hitchhiker thumbing a ride, a “rider” is an amendment looking for a vehicle to take it where it wants to go. Members of Congress with a bill that cannot attract enough votes on its own will add it as an amendment to a popular bill that is likely to pass. Riders usually are not germane to the bill—that is, they have little or nothing in common with the bill on which they are riding. House rules prohibit non-germane amendments, so riders are used in the Senate, with the hope that the House will accept them in the conference committee that hammers out the differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill. Appropriations bills, which provide for payment of federal money for many different projects, are favorite vehicles for these legislative riders.
See also Appropriations; Conference committees; Germaneness
