Sen. Robert C. Byrd - June's Porker of the Month

Washington, D.C. Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today named Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W. Va.) Porker of the Month for his legacy as the “King of Pork.” Mr. Byrd today becomes the longest-serving Senator in U.S. history.


Sen. Byrd has sat on the Appropriations Committee since 1959, his first year in the Senate. He is former chairman and currently Ranking Member. CAGW began tracking federal pork with its Pig Book in 1991. Since 1991, West Virginia has received $2.95 billion in pork. Projects added in the Senate (those most likely attributed to Sen. Byrd) total $1.2 billion. The state has ranked in the top 4 in pork per capita every year since 2001. CAGW dubbed him the “King of Pork” in 1999 when West Virginia became the first state to garner $1 billion in pork in the collective Pig Book database.


CAGW’s “Byrd Droppings” has chronicled 33 projects in West Virginia named after Sen. Byrd, including the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope, the Robert C. Byrd Highway, and the Robert C. Byrd Hardwood Technologies Center. Federal law prohibits the naming of federal structures after sitting members of Congress. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) calls the practice a violation of campaign finance laws because it is “the equivalent of a government payment for a campaign billboard.”

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