House Transportation Chairman Shuster to Retire After 2018

(Bloomberg) -- Republican Representative Bill Shuster, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said Tuesday he will retire from the Pennsylvania congressional seat he and his father before him have held since 1973.

Shuster, 56, said in a statement he plans to spend his final months in Congress working with President Donald Trump to craft an infrastructure bill and help usher it through the committee he has led since 2013. Shuster was first elected to the House in a 2001 special election after his father, Bud Shuster, resigned from the seat.

The younger Shuster oversaw two major initiatives as committee chairman: a $12 billion measure to fund water projects in 2013 and a five-year transportation bill in 2015. He was one of the main backers of a proposal to privatize the nation's air traffic control system as part of a reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA's current authorization is set to expire at the end of March.

The 9th District in southwestern Pennsylvania is a “solidly red district” and should remain in Republican hands, National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Steve Stivers said in a statement thanking Shuster for his service.

Politico reported in 2015 that Shuster was romantically involved with Shelley Rubino, vice president for global govt affairs with Airlines for America. Shuster said at the time he was “transparent” in disclosing that relationship.

Shuster's father resigned from Congress as he reached the term limit as Transportation Committee chairman and after the House ethics committee cited him for “serious official misconduct” stemming in part from his ties to a lobbyist.

To contact the reporter on this story: Anna Edgerton in Washington at aedgerton@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Kevin Whitelaw at kwhitelaw@bloomberg.net, Laurie Asséo, Justin Blum

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