When has legislation by appropriation been used in the past?

Answer 1

"Legislation by Appropriation" is usually viewed the age-old process of taking a bill which cannot pass on its own merits and easing it through as a "rider" on an appropriations bill. It's typically used to approve spending and grow the size of the federal budget although it has also been used to defund controversial activities or policies.

The 1901 Platt Amendment was a famous rider to the Army Appropriations Act of 1901. The amendment had absolutely nothing to do with Army appropriations but specified the conditions under which the United States might intervene in the internal affairs of Cuba.

A 1956 thesis by Juilian I Schocken performed an in-depth analysis of Section 638 of H.R. 6042, which became Public Law 157 of the 84th Congress)

Congress used the appropriations process to nullify executive foreign policy, essentially de-funding wars such as the Vietnam War. In 1982, Congress blocked the Reagan administration's policies in Nicaragua by preventing both the military and the CIA from using their funding to supply arms to the Contras.

In 2013, The House of Representatives passed a bill to authorize the Government budget for everything except ObamaCare, and the Senate chose not to vote to authorize that money to be spent, triggering a partial shutdown of federal government operations.