It was my vague understanding that there is some very low bar for attaching riders, so that members can kill a bill they don't like by attaching a poison pill. If so, the answer would be "make the amendment process require more votes" or something like that.
I'd very much like an clear explanation of how the amendment process works.
> It was my vague understanding that there is some very low bar for attaching riders, so that members can kill a bill they don't like by attaching a poison pill.
Floor amendments are voted on just like bills, and require a majority vote to pass. The way that it can be relatively "easy" for certain members to get amendments attached to a bill is in committee, since the committee to which a bill is assigned can either let the original bill languish (though if the rest of the House wants the bill out of committee, it can be pulled out) and adopt and report out an entirely new bill, on the same subject, with amendments, or report out the original bill with committee amendments as a package which are voted on together (this would be part of the rule for the bill, and this rule is, itself, subject to vote.)
It still seems like there's a possibility that a large minority, who will vote against the bill no matter what, can attach a rider that appeals to a subset of the majority that's in favor of the bill but which will make the bill unpalatable to the rest of the supporting majority. But those kind of hypotheticals quickly devolve into complicated strategies, and it's not clear there's a better mechanism than the majority vote.
I'd very much like an clear explanation of how the amendment process works.