Word: shusters
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...WASHINGTON OUT TO CUT federal spending, 12-term Congressman Bud Shuster is an unrepentant pork-barrel spender. Now it appears the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has converts. More than half his House colleagues--including a hefty majority of those reform-minded G.O.P. freshmen--are backing a bill that would lift constraints on highway and airport projects. If the Truth in Budgeting Act is passed by the House next week, it would give Shuster's committee great latitude to tap some $33 billion in transportation trust funds...
...building roads and upgrading airports. But the supposedly untapped funds are actually an accounting figment. Using them would increase the deficit or force greater cuts in other programs. Budget Committee chairman John Kasich and Appropriations chairman Bob Livingston are vehemently opposed. Attempts by Newt Gingrich to reconcile them and Shuster have come to naught. Meanwhile, Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan broke with his custom of staying neutral to advise against passage...
Despite the lack of a challenger, Shuster has found ways to spend the money. He has consistently led all other Congress members in the amount his campaign spends on meals--$70,913 during the 1992 election cycle, according to Dwight Morris, co-author of The Handbook of Campaign Spending. (His nearest competition was renowned steakhouse habitue Dan Rostenkowski, who spent $28,734.) And Shuster's campaign travel budget has ranked near the top among House members, although his district is a mere two-hour drive from Washington by way of a four-lane stretch of highway officially designated...
...Shuster and Eppard insist that he has done nothing special for his longtime aide or her clients. But the real value of effective lobbyists is the ability to make a member of Congress pay attention to the causes they promote. At a conference committee on highway legislation last fall, Shuster rankled some in the Senate by tying up talks for weeks with his demands to loosen the federal restriction that keeps billboards off scenic roadways. The billboard industry is both an Eppard client and a leading Shuster contributor. One question that Common Cause may ask the ethics committee to investigate...
...that new gift rule includes a locomotive-size exemption for lobbyists who happen to be "personal friends" of House members. And if the bonds of mutual benefit between Shuster and Eppard say anything, it is about what constitutes friendship in Washington...