The Fiscal 1996 VA-HUD -- Independent Agencies Appropriations Bill, H.R. 2099, which funds the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), became the legislative vehicle for 17 provisions to cut back on public health and environmental protection. Such provisions, known as "riders," are not normally placed on funding bills. The provisions ranged from narrow exemptions to broad rollbacks of clean air and clean water regulations. Among the riders were measures to eliminate EPA's role in protecting wetlands, to exempt oil refineries from air toxic standards, to prohibit EPA from regulating arsenic, radon, and sulfates in drinking water, and to block enforcement of clean air provisions (see Senate vote #13, Crippling the EPA).

Reps. Louis Stokes (D-OH) and Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) offered an amendment to eliminate the anti-environmental riders. On July 29, 1995, the amendment was adopted by a narrow six-vote margin. Three days later the House Republican leadership used a procedural maneuver to reconsider the vote. On July 31, 1995, the Stokes-Boehlert amendment was rejected 210-210. YES is the pro-environment vote.