E.G. “Bud” Shuster (R-Penn.)
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Claims to fame: Chairman of the House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure
Moral apex: Shacked up with a transportation-industry lobbyist, put her on his payroll, and voted any way she wanted him to.
Or, as the Congressional Accountability Project put it in 2000: “Shuster is Chairman of the House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure. Ann Eppard is a top transportation lobbyist in Washington. She has built a lucrative and successful lobbying practice lobbying Chairman Shuster on matters pending before his Committee. Chairman Shuster employs Eppard as his campaign fundraiser, apparently raising hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign funds that have been diverted to personal use by both Shuster and Eppard. Shuster has paid Eppard a $3,000 monthly fee for these fundraising and campaign services. Shuster has regularly lodged with Eppard at her Virginia home, according to a report by the CBS News program 60 Minutes. The Congressional Accountability Project’s 1996 complaint showed that several of Eppard’s clients received generous favors and benefits from Chairman Shuster and the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee. Since then, mounting evidence strongly suggests that the Shuster-Eppard partnership is an influence-peddling scheme that is readily exploited by corporations and special interests to gain influence in Congress. Many news reports show that Eppard has been remarkably successful in obtaining legislative favors and benefits from Chairman Shuster on behalf of her clients.”
Suggested Bible reading for Mr. Shuster:
Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
— Proverbs 1:31-32
