diff --git a/.github/scripts/downstream-project-spl-common.sh b/.github/scripts/downstream-project-spl-common.sh
index c6dcfaca007867..c7286e8325a4d9 100644
--- a/.github/scripts/downstream-project-spl-common.sh
+++ b/.github/scripts/downstream-project-spl-common.sh
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ source "$here"/../../ci/downstream-projects/common.sh
 
 set -x
 rm -rf spl
-git clone https://github.com/solana-labs/solana-program-library.git spl
+git clone https://github.com/solana-labs/solana-program-library.git spl -b v1.16
 
 # copy toolchain file to use solana's rust version
 cp "$SOLANA_DIR"/rust-toolchain.toml spl/