Up close and ugly

Abstract

The scolding by a House ethics committee of Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman Bud Shuster illuminates how corporations attempt to game the political system. The 4-year investigation into Shuster reveals how airline, railroad and trucking interests - and any number of other special interests - spend money lavishly to gain the ear and, hopefully, favor of lawmakers who might do them some good. Shuster is important to transportation companies because he chairs a committee that holds considerable sway over funds for highway and rail construction projects, transportation safety and economic regulation, the granting of international airline routes and resolution of airline and railroad labor strikes.