House Transportation Chairman Bill Shuster said Tuesday morning that he never thought of recusing himself from his panel’s work on a massive aviation overhaul, despite his recently disclosed romantic relationship with a top airline industry lobbyist.
“I think people in this town know my integrity level,” Shuster said at the Newseum during a National Journal forum on transportation infrastructure, in response to a question from NJ reporter Fawn Johnson. “I’ve been very transparent, and one of the things is this is a personal and private relationship. But I think I’ve gone above and beyond what the rules require, what the law requires, to make sure that we’re doing things appropriately.”
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Shuster, who has blamed the disclosure on the “liberal media,” left the event without taking further questions about the matter.
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The Pennsylvania Republican’s comments came two weeks after POLITICO reported that he has been dating Shelley Rubino, a top lobbyist for Airlines for America, since last summer without disclosing the relationship, even as his committee is in middle of negotiating a massive overhaul of the Federal Aviation Administration. As POLITICO later reported, he also pushed through an industry-favored bill on airline ticket prices last year that was a top priority for Rubino’s organization.
The organization, also known as A4A, spends millions of dollars trying to influence Shuster’s panel. Among other positions, it’s been advocating what it calls a “fundamental reform” of the FAA that could include spinning off the agency’s air traffic control functions into an independent nonprofit or some other entity.
Government watchdog groups have said Shuster’s relationship with Rubino is troubling — Craig Holman of Public Citizen called it a “huge, huge, tremendous conflict of interest” — and have expressed doubt that it’s enough for his office to have enacted a policy precluding his girlfriend from lobbying him or his staff. Some fellow lawmakers have also privately described the relationship as unseemly, especially since Rubino is free to lobby other members of the transportation committee.
Johnson broached the topic gingerly Tuesday, saying: “It’s not my practice generally to get into someone’s personal life, but you’ve been dating a lobbyist for the airline industry, a former Hill staffer, very well thought of. But the airline industry has a huge stake in the FAA bill. So can you tell us what that’s about and how you’re coping with that?”
“I’ve been very transparent,” Shuster responded, adding: “I know a lot of people that are lobbyists in this town but, again, I think we can do these things as professionals.”
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When Johnson asked if he considered recusing himself from aviation matters, he said: “No.”
“I’m going to be at the table,” he said. “I’ve got a lot of stakeholders. I guarantee you everybody is going to walk away from this deal hopefully saying, ‘Well, it’s pretty good and it’s not perfect.’
“This is not going to be about one stakeholder,” Shuster said, noting that several aviation advocacy groups would have to get behind the FAA reauthorization for the bill to succeed.
The FAA bill is just one of several big issues on Shuster’s plate, along with the need to reauthorize federal highway and transit programs before they expire May 31.
