It happens at this time every year. We are approaching the end of a Congressional session. Complicated money bills full of large numbers zoom around Washington, bills that MUST be passed by Congress and signed by the President if the government is to function.
Dirty games abound, including the game of riders.
A rider is a last-minute amendment to one of those necessary bills, usually slipped into the 154th paragraph or so where no one will notice. The rider will have nothing to do with the bill. It will do a major favor at public expense to some campaign contributor somewhere, but the damage will be finely calibrated to look insignificant relative to the billion-dollar bill it's riding on. No one will feel like stalling the nation's business just to dust off a few pesky riders. In short, it's a sneaky, underhanded way of governing.