Today, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) named Senator Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) our February 2023 Porker of the Month for securing $666 billion in pork-barrel earmarks.

Now that earmarks are back, Sen. Shelby fed himself at the trough for 18 earmarks worth $666,406,000, which is 23 percent more than the next highest member of Congress. Sen. Shelby has always added earmarks at a prolific rate. When information on earmarks was available in 2008-2010, he added 424 earmarks costing $905 million. Sen. Shelby has a long history of acquiring wasteful pork-barrel earmarks and has been named CAGW’s Porker of the Month six times including today. As a long-time member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, including ranking member before he retired in 2022, Sen. Shelby poured hundreds of millions of dollars in earmarks into the University of Alabama, where multiple buildings on multiple campuses have been named after him and his wife Annette.

CAGW President Tom Schatz said, “Sen. Shelby’s sense of fiscal discipline does not exist. For his entire career, he ignored the glaring red sign that says earmarks are one of the most corrupt, costly, and inequitable practices in the history of Congress. Unfortunately, too many other members of Congress are following his lead by wasting billions of taxpayer dollars on their personal pet projects. Although Sen. Shelby has retired, he left behind a long legacy of wasteful pork-barrel earmarks. For once again securing hundreds of millions in earmarks, Sen. Shelby is an obvious choice for CAGW’s February Porker of the Month. Good riddance to the Pork King!”

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government. For more than two decades, Porker of the Month is a dubious honor given to lawmakers and government officials who have shown a blatant disregard for the taxpayers.

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