Richard Shelby - U.S. Senate - Tenure - 2000s

2000s

Shelby was also highly critical of CIA Director George Tenet in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. When Tenet resigned in July 2004, Shelby commented "This is not a surprise to me at all. What was a surprise was that he held onto the job as long as he did."

From 2003 until 2007, he chaired the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. He is also a member of the Appropriations Committee (where he chaired its subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science) and Special Committee on Aging. He lost his chairmanships in 2007 when the Democrats regained control of the Senate.

In 2004, a federal investigation concluded that Shelby revealed classified information to the media when he was a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Specifically, Shelby revealed classified information on June 19, 2002 to Carl Cameron, the chief political correspondent on Fox News. The information consisted of two messages intercepted by the National Security Agency on September 10, 2001, but were only translated the day after the attacks — "the match is about to begin" and "tomorrow is zero hour." The Department of Justice declined to file criminal charges against Shelby and transferred the case to the Senate Ethics Committee, which dismissed its probe into the alleged leak.

Shelby, in his role as chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, & Urban Affairs, opposed proposed legislation that would have permitted additional competition in the title insurance industry.

Shelby is currently co-chair of the Congressional Privacy Caucus and Zero Capital Gains Tax Caucus. He is also the Senate co-chair of the National Security Caucus. In addition, he is a member of the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the Senate Centrist Coalition.

In the Metroplex of Dallas–Fort Worth, Shelby is known for the Shelby Amendment, a law he sponsored that eased some of the restrictions placed on Dallas' secondary airport by the contentious Wright Amendment.

On February 5, 2010, Shelby placed a hold on over 70 of Obama's nominees to various government posts, in a protest over an Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker contract and the FBI's Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center. Shelby lifted all but three of the holds on February 8, 2010, releasing a statement that "The purpose of placing numerous holds was to get the White House’s attention on two issues that are critical to our national security – the Air Force’s aerial refueling tanker acquisition and the FBI’s Terrorist Device Analytical Center (TEDAC). With that accomplished, Sen. Shelby has decided to release his holds on all but a few nominees directly related to the Air Force tanker acquisition until the new Request for Proposal is issued." White House spokesman Robert Gibbs criticized Shelby for "hold up qualified nominees for positions that are needed because he didn't get two earmarks"; Shelby denied the holds were over earmarks.

Shelby criticised the Obama administration for abandoning NASA's Constellation program stating "It is unfortunate that this administration is choosing to abandon our nation's only chance at remaining the leader in human space flight. It is ironic that Constellation, a program born out of the recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, would be eliminated in lieu of rockets repeatedly deemed unsafe for astronauts by NASA's own Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel. If this budget is enacted, NASA will no longer be an agency of innovation and hard science; it will be the agency of pipe dreams and fairy tales." Shelby failed to cite any evidence that the untested Ares rockets, being developed under the Constellation program, would be any safer than existing rockets.

Critics point out that Shelby supports big government programs but ignores the private sector at every opportunity. Although he called Constellation "our nation's only chance at remaining the leader in human space flight," a number of private companies were, and are, competing to develop orbital launch systems. Among these companies is United Launch Alliance, a Boeing-Lockheed joint venture that builds rockets in Shelby's home state. Numerous other companies are developing reusable suborbital launch vehicles, which could evolve into orbital systems. Unlike Constellation, these reusable vehicles offer the promise of significant cost and safety improvements. Critics worry that Shelby's support of an expensive expendable rocket will lock NASA into using expendable technologies for another several decades, thereby jeopardizing astronaut safety.