Nine of the 16 Senate Republicans who received earmarks in 2022 are members of the upper chamber’s Appropriations Committee and, despite being in the minority, received twice as much pork as their Democratic colleagues on the panel.
The nine Republicans on the committee gained fewer total earmarks, trailing their 13 Democratic counterparts 743 to 498, but the total value of the Republican earmarks was almost twice as much, at $2.2 billion versus $1.3 billion.
The Epoch Times analysis is derived from a database prepared by the Bipartisan Policy Center, based on official congressional information. The Epoch Times only counted earmarks on which an individual senator or representative was listed as the “First Requestor.”
Measured by the number of earmarks each individual senator on the committee received, Democrats, on average, got 57, compared with 55 for the Republicans. Two Democrats on the committee—Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.)—didn’t seek earmarks.
Six members on the Republican side chose to not request earmarks. They were Sens. Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), John Hoeven (R-N.D.), John Kennedy (R-La.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
There was no limit to the number of earmarks an individual senator could request. On the House side, however, representatives were limited to no more than 10 earmarks for 2022.
Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), the ranking Republican who’s retiring, led all rivals in both parties on the appropriations committee, nailing down 14 earmarks worth a total of $545 million, an average of $39 million each.
Shelby’s haul included $132 million for the Alabama Port Authority, $100 million for the Mobile Downtown Airport, $76 million for the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Heersink School of Medicine, $62 million for Mobile harbor facilities, and $60 million for the University of Alabama’s College of Medicine.
Shelby was so successful in securing earmarks that Alabama projects were seven of the 10 most expensive in the $1.5 trillion omnibus spending measure adopted in March to keep the federal government open through September.
Shelby’s congressional career began in 1978 with his election as a Democrat to the House of Representatives, where he served four terms. He was elected to the Senate, again as a Democrat, in 1986. He switched to the Republican Party in 1994, the year the Republicans won majorities in both the Senate and House for the first time in 40 years.
In second place was Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), with 28 earmarks totaling $334 million and an average of $12 million each. Third on the earmark parade was Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) who, like Shelby, is retiring at the end of this year. Blunt’s 41 earmarks were worth a total of $265 million, an average of $6.1 million each.
Sen. Shelley Moore-Capito (R-W.Va.) was next up, garnering 117 earmarks worth in total $251 million, an average of $2.5 million each. Then came another Republican, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) with 63 earmarks with a total value of $225 million, an average of $3.6 million each.
The leading Democrat on the earmarks list of First Requestors was Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.). Feinstein received 52 earmarks, collectively worth $210 million. The average cost for each Feinstein earmark was $4 million.
Appropriations Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) had the second-biggest pile among committee Democrats of federal tax dollars being earmarked for projects back home. Leahy got 82 earmarks worth a total of $167 million, with an average value of $2 million per earmark.
Like Shelby, Leahy is serving his last year in the Senate, but the Vermont Democrat is the longest-serving member of the present upper chamber and the fourth-longest in U.S. history. He was first elected to the Senate in 1974, when President Gerald Ford was in the White House.
Third among the Appropriations Committee Democrats was Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) with 125 earmarks worth collectively $158 million, or $1.3 million each on average. Right behind Merkley was Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) with 72 earmarks worth a total of $152 million, an average of $2.1 million each.
The seven Republican senators not on the appropriations committee who requested earmarks included Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), who’s retiring; Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.); Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), who’s retiring; Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.).
