Richard Craig Shelby (born May 6, 1934) is an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Alabama from 1987 to 2023.

Due to his party switch, Shelby is the last Democrat to have held or won election to Alabama's Class 3 Senate seat.

At a meeting with Vice President Al Gore, he turned to the TV cameras and denounced the Clinton program as "high on taxes, low on [spending] cuts".

He helped sink Anthony Lake's nomination as CIA director in 1997 and promised to investigate the use of American-made satellites by the Chinese to gather intelligence.

"[16] According to The Washington Post: Civil liberties groups and news organizations, which argued that the legislation would chill their ability to get information from officials, lobbied for the veto.

...In 2002, with George W. Bush in the White House, Shelby reintroduced his language, but then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft said that "rigorous investigation" and enforcement of existing laws—not new legislation—were the best way to fight leaks.

[16]In 1991, Shelby supported the Crime Bill S.1241[17] sponsored by Senator Joseph Biden that instituted a national waiting period for handgun purchases as well as a federal ban on semi-automatic firearms.

[18] In January 1992, Shelby met with Chair of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan, advocating that the basic cost of money be reduced from 3.5% to 3% to stimulate the economy.

He confirmed afterward that he intended to vote for Greenspan for another term as Federal Reserve Chair and said that Greenspan was not opposed to his suggestion to cut the discount rate to its lowest in 20 years in addition to agreeing with him on the need for a restoration of investment tax credits and a special tax rate for capital gains along with the providing of incentives to encourage savings.

In 2004, a federal investigation concluded that Shelby revealed classified information to the media while a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

[28] Specifically, he revealed classified information on June 19, 2002, to Carl Cameron, the chief political correspondent on Fox News.

The information consisted of two messages between Al-Qaeda operatives intercepted by the National Security Agency on September 10, 2001, but not translated until 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.

[29] As chair of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, & Urban Affairs, Shelby opposed legislation that would have permitted additional competition in the title insurance industry.

"[32] Later that month, he was one of 14 senators to vote against a procedural move that essentially guaranteed a major expansion of a national service corps.

[33] In February 2010, Shelby placed a hold on more than 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.

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.

[46] In September 2020, with less than two months left in the presidential election, Shelby supported an immediate Senate vote on Trump's nominee to fill the Supreme Court vacancy caused by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death.

Yet in March 2016, Shelby refused to consider Obama's Supreme Court nominee, saying the "decision should be made after the upcoming presidential election so that the American people have a voice.

[49] In August 2021, Shelby prevented an attempt to limit cryptocurrency tax-reporting requirements in the Senate infrastructure bill.

[54] Shelby opposes abortion and said on his Senate campaign website that Roe v. Wade is "terribly flawed on both a constitutional and moral basis."

[55] When Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022, Shelby called it "welcome news" and said, "It is our moral and ethical duty to protect the dignity of human life, particularly when it comes to the unborn.

[60] Since becoming Senate Banking chair, Shelby has made "regulatory relief and financial regulation reform his top priority".

[61] In May 2015, he revealed the so-called Shelby Bill, easing regulatory restrictions on smaller banks and increasing scrutiny of the Federal Reserve.

In a written statement, he called the legislation "a working document intended to initiate a conversation with all members of the committee who are interested in reaching a bipartisan agreement to improve access to credit and to reduce the level of risk in our financial system.

"[67] In March 2015, Shelby was one of 47 Republican senators to sign a letter to Iran warning that a nuclear deal with the U.S. would have to first be approved by Congress.

[68] In July, he called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action "a bad deal" and questioned why the U.S. would support the agreement if Russia President Vladimir Putin favored it.

[70] In December 2010, Shelby was one of 26 senators to vote against the ratification of New Start,[71] a nuclear arms reduction treaty between the U.S. and the Russian Federation obliging both countries to have no more than 1,550 strategic warheads as well as 700 launchers deployed during the next seven years along with providing a continuation of on-site inspections that halted when START I expired the previous year.

In March 2018, Shelby voted to table a resolution spearheaded by Bernie Sanders, Chris Murphy, and Mike Lee that would have required Trump to withdraw American troops either in or influencing Yemen in the next 30 days unless they were combating Al-Qaeda.