Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today announced the nominees for its 2016 Porker of the Year. People may cast their ballots for the candidate they think was the most reprehensible Porker in 2016 in an online poll at cagw.org/porkeroftheyear. The six finalists were chosen by CAGW staff from among 12 worthy Porkers of the Month from the previous year. The voting deadline is February 3, 2017 and the results will be announced February 7, 2017. The candidates are:

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) was named January 2016 Porker of the Month for trying – and ultimately failing – to block a permanent ban on internet access taxes, which would have cost Americans up to $14.7 billion annually.

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) was named April 2016 Porker of the Month for being the only member of Congress still shameless enough to brag about securing one of the self-serving earmarks featured in CAGW’s 2016 Congressional Pig Book.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) was named August 2016 Porker of the Month for his leading role in the effort to create supposedly “debt-free” college for all students, which would exacerbate, rather than solve, the student loan crisis.

Gov. Charlie Baker (R-Mass.) was named September 2016 Porker of the Month for signing into law a destructive tax on citizens who use ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft, in order to bail out the stalled taxi cab industry.

Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) was named October 2016 Porker of the Month for leading the effort to allow the corporate welfare-dispensing Export-Import Bank to function with limited accountability in 2016.

Reps. John Culberson (R-Texas), Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), and Tom Rooney (R-Fla.) were named December 2016 Porkers of the Month for leading the effort among House Republicans to bring back wasteful and corruptive pork-barrel earmarks less than one week after voters signaled their discontent with business as usual in Washington in November’s elections.

CAGW is the nation’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government. Porker of the Month and Porker of the Year are dubious honors given to lawmakers, government officials, and political candidates who have shown a blatant disregard for the interests of taxpayers.