Free Republic

A very business as usual Republican Congressman from Pennsylvania, Bill Shuster, announced his retirement recently. Shuster and his father (Congressman Bud Shuster) 'milked the system' with great success, focused on transportation matters like building new roads. Bill Shuster chairs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Bill Shuster's involvement with lobbyists is the stuff of legend, his marriage suddenly ending in December of 2015 and Shuster revealing he was dating a female lobbyist for the airline industry. That may have something to do with the decisions by Shuster and dozens of other Republicans to call it quits. Some of the 40...

A Republican congressman says the U.S. government should significantly raise the gas tax in order to fund President Donald Trump's ambitious infrastructure plan. Rep. Bill Shuster of Pennsylvania told Bloomberg TV that the tax should be increased by 15 cents per gallon of gasoline. The current rate is 18.4 cents, and hasn't seen a hike since 1993. Shuster said Thursday at a Republican congressional retreat in West Virginia that for the average American, a 15-cent increase would equal the cost of 'a cup of coffee a week that they might have to forgo.' 'Or if you're a Starbucks person, half...

Sen. Orrin Hatch, the longest-serving Senate Republican, announced on Jan. 2 that he would not seek re-election – ending weeks of speculation to the contrary. Hatch, an 83-year-old from Utah, said he would retire at the end of his term. Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., also announced the same day that he would not seek re-election. Shuster, 56, told the Washington Examiner that he hopes to work with President Trump on an infrastructure bill before he retires. Multiple Republican lawmakers have already announced that they would not return to Washington after 2018. In general, fall retirement announcements are nothing new. On...

Earmarks again are a topic in Congress, and people in this part of Pennsylvania shouldn’t condemn them. Back in the 1970s, when highway construction was booming around the biggest population centers of the Keystone State, places like Altoona, Johnstown, Ebensburg and Bedford were told that once those projects were completed, work would begin on their roadway needs.But as the large-scale projects around Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Erie were completed, the promises that had been made to Blair County and other smaller-population areas, didn’t materialize because of alleged money shortages.The message seemed to be: “We’ll get to you sometime, but for...

The conservative tea party challenger who was narrowly beaten in the Republican primary by U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster says he will run against the eight-term incumbent -- as a Democrat. Art Halvorson, a retired Coast Guard captain from Bedford County, received more than the 1,000 write-in votes in the Democratic primary. ... Halvorson has called Shuster too moderate, and the challenger touts himself as a tea party-backed conservative Christian. Shuster is the House Transportation Committee chairman and is Pennsylvania's highest-ranked member of Congress. He beat Halvorson in the 2014 Republican primary, but his second victory over Halvorson in April was...

The chairman of the House committee that handles aviation legislation has acknowledged he has a private, personal relationship with an airline industry lobbyist. Rep. Bill Shuster is chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The Pennsylvania Republican acknowledged his relationship with Shelley Rubino in a statement Thursday but said she doesn’t lobby him. Rubino works for Airlines for America, a trade association for major U.S. airlines. …

U.S. Senators Arlen Specter and Bob Casey and Congressmen Bill Shuster and Mike Doyle today announced that the Pennsylvania High-Speed Maglev Project will receive $28 million in federal funding. The funding is in the form of a grant from the Federal Railroad Administration SAFETEA-LU Maglev Program. “This $28 million award is the most significant development in the 29 years we’ve been working on Maglev,” Senator Specter said. “The vision is to have a 250 mile-an-hour train traveling from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia with intermediate stops. Such a train would be a tremendous economic boon with thousands of new jobs in the...

<p>A former aide to U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Hollidaysburg, said yesterday that the congressman assigned him to spy on an opponent in next year's Republican primary.</p> <p>Joshua Juda, who quit Shuster's staff on Oct. 31, said Shuster and his chief of staff, Alex Mistri, instructed him to gather information on Michael DelGrosso, who plans to run against Shuster. Juda said the work was done during his government work hours.</p>