To: Rep. Daniel Meuser (PA-9) and Rep. Bryan Steil (WI-1)
It's time for Transportation Chair Shuster to Resign
House Transportation Committee Chair Bill Shuster has been caught cozying up to airline lobbyists on more than one occasion. Shuster is known to push legislation that favors those lobbyists.
We, the undersigned, believe that it is time for him to resign from the Transportation Committee.
Why is this important?
The headline in Politico says it all:
"Shuster lounges poolside with airline lobbyists as he pursues FAA bill
"It's the latest example of the Transportation Committee chairman's coziness with the airline industry."
(http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/bill-shuster-faa-bill-airline-lobbyists-219666#ixzz41BxPY6Ls)
On Feb. 10, Nick Calio, head of the nation’s top airline trade group, Airlines for America, testified before Rep. Bill Shuster’s House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The topic was a top priority for both men: A bill to overhaul the Federal Aviation Administration, most controversially by putting air traffic control in the hands of an entity favorable to the airlines.
Two days later, Shuster’s committee approved the measure. And the week after that, he and Calio escaped to Miami Beach, Florida, with Shelley Rubino, an Airlines for America vice president who is Shuster’s girlfriend.
The three lounged by the pool and dined together during festivities tied to Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart’s (R-Fla.) annual weekend fundraising trip. Attendees said it they looked as if they were traveling in a pack.
It’s the most recent example of Shuster’s cozy relationship with the powerful airline association. His panel has jurisdiction over the $160 billion U.S. airline industry.
The FAA bill is critical to the Pennsylvania Republican’s legacy, and to Airlines for America’s members, which include every major airline and cargo carrier in the country except Delta Air Lines. Calio testified that modernizing the air-traffic control system would provide an “immense benefit” to the airlines and their customers.
The bill would spin off the nation’s air-traffic control apparatus into a nonprofit company. The airline industry would have more representation than any other industry on the entity’s board. Pilots would also get a seat, handing the airlines effective control of the air-traffic control system. Regional airlines, which operate roughly half of the nation’s flights, would have no representation on the board.