Rep. Shuster praised for leadership skills
For the second time in as many years, Bill Shuster has successfully fashioned a bipartisan bill in his role as chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
Good for him. Good for the rest of us, too.
The passage by the House of $7.2 billion for passenger rail service was remarkable on two fronts.
First, the White House actually welcomed the legislation passed by the Republican-controlled House, though it complained about a paucity of funding, a complaint also voiced by organized labor.
Second, the House action was accompanied by warnings from two conservative watchdog groups that they would use the vote as a measure of members’ conservative credentials.
In other words, a vote in favor would suggest insufficient fidelity to conservative values. Republicans risked losing endorsements and campaign dollars.
Despite raising the ire of Heritage Action and the Club for Growth, two stalwarts of the right, 132 GOP House members voted for the bill along with 184 House Democrats.
The nays — all 101 of them — came from the Republican side of the aisle.
Shuster, a Republican from Hollidaysburg who represents Fayette County in the House, is emerging as a skilled legislator, one of a small number on Capitol Hill who is able to bring together Republicans and Democrats on contentious issues.
It’s a jaw-dropping achievement in this era of harsh partisan divisions and ideological-centered politics.
It’s all more the remarkable because Shuster has faced down one political challenge after another back home in his district. Twice he has survived razor thin primary elections. The last time, in 2014, he squeezed by two challengers, both of whom set up camp on his right flank.
What accounts for Shuster being able to shepherd through a sharply divided House a measure that found favor with a majority of members from both parties?
First of all, he believes in what he’s doing.
Ed Wytkind, president of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department in Washington, has been in the room as Shuster has worked on legislation. He has listened to the congressman speak to labor groups.
In every instance, Wytkind says, Shuster comes off as a passionate advocate for the idea that America needs modern highways and railroads for the benefit of this and future generations.
Second, Shuster listens to and watches very closely what other congressmen are saying and doing.
Some might see this as nothing more than pandering, a gift for mimicry, an uninspiring capacity to reflect the views of others.
In the world of big league legislating, it is called consensus-building, a lost skill in the nation’s capital.
Making legislation is not a neat or even necessarily a logical process. In the hands of an adept politician, however, it can be a thing of wonder; spinning snipets of ideas drawn from conflicting interests and clashing personalities into a complete and pleasing package is never easy.
It requires persistence, energy and brains. It demands a political antenna sensitive to nuance and the interests of others. It involves a recognition that party differences and different points of view are not dissolved in the cauldron of law-making; at best, they are temporarily submerged; yet, the attitude must remain, “let’s get on with it.”
Wytkind told me that Rep. Shuster is “an incredibly gifted legislator” whose abilities will be sorely tested in the next few weeks and months. Chief among these challenges is a surface transportation road-building and repair bill that is closely linked to a looming shortage in the nation’s highway trust fund.
Absent congressional action, the trust fund runs dry May 31.
Give-and-take is the very heart and soul of legislating. Everyone gives up something, everyone gets something.
Threading the trust fund needle will be a major undertaking. Compromises will be required. Helping the process along, hopefully, will be Shuster’s ace legislative skills, the clear need for a national road building, bridge repair, infrastructure program, and the fact that every congressional district in the country needs a new bridge or road now and again.
Let’s hope it all comes together. We need those roads and bridges, and we should could use the spending to create thousands of jobs.
Richard Robbins lives in Uniontown and is the author of two books – “Grand Salute: Stories of the World War II Generation” and “Our People.” He can be reached at grandsalutebook@gmail.com.