WASHINGTON — Appropriations bills for the upcoming fiscal year unveiled in the Senate last week contain more than 3,100 earmarks totaling almost $7.8 billion, with Sen. Richard C. Shelby once again the uncontested champion of what senators have rebranded “congressionally directed spending.”
The retiring Alabama Republican, also the ranking member on Senate Appropriations, pulled in $656.4 million across four of the bills, which in general he and other Republicans oppose because of what they consider excess spending and partisan policy riders.
Altogether, Shelby and 15 other Senate Republicans who requested earmarks obtained almost $3.4 billion of the total, or nearly 44 percent. The entire Democratic Caucus other than Montana’s Jon Tester and New Hampshire’s Maggie Hassan — 48 in all, including two independents — secured just under $4 billion. The remainder were bipartisan requests.
