REP. SHUSTER (SANITIZED)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP92M00732R000300010010-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 2, 2014
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: April 12, 1989
• Content Type: MEMO

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2014/04/03: CIA-RDP92M00732R000300010010-3
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11-220 - Representatives and Staffs
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?
I.
Bud Shuster
R?Pennsylvania, 9th District
Began Service: 1973
2268 Rayburn House
Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-3809
[phone]
BIOGRAPHICAL Born: 1/23/32 ? Home: Everett
? Educ.: B.S., U. of Pittsburgh; M.B.A., Duquesne U.;
Ph. D., American U. ? Prof.: Computer Co. Exec.;
Author ? Rel.: Protestant
KEY STAFF AIDES
Name/Position Legislative Responsibility
Ann Eppard
Admin. Asst.
Karen Schecter
Press Asst.
Carol McKissick
Office Mgr.
Scott Lowry
Legis. Asst.
Charlotte Herbert
Appts. Secy.
COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS 1.
Public Works and Transportation: Surface Transportation,
Ranking Minority Member ? Aviation ? Investigations and Over-
sight
Intelligence (Select): Legislation ? Oversight and Evaluation
OTHER POSITIONS
House Republican Study Committee ? Congressional Rural
Caucus ? Congressional Steel Caucus ? Congressional Travel
and Tourism Caucus ? Congressional Truck Caucus,
Co-Chairman ? Commission on the U.S. House of Representa-
tives Bicentenary ? Chowder and Marching Society
DISTRICT OFFICES
RD 2, Box 711
Altoona, PA 16601 [phone]
179 E. Queen St.
Chambersburg, PA 17201 [phone]
Spring 1988
Congressim
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1
image among Democrats: he was running as an
avowed partisan for GOP whip. His opponent.
Trent Lott of Mississippi. was virtually his
opposite in style: friendly, easygoing and non-
controversial. Shuster campaigned for the job
for a year with all his customary single-minded-
ness, carefully cultivating each member.
Starting as a distinct underdog, he gradu-
ally gained on Lott, but not quite enough. The
final score in January of 1981 was Lott 96.
Shuster 90. Some Republicans felt that the
same drive and intensity that brought Shuster
so close ultimately defeated him, because it
raised the fear that he would be less than
sympathetic to their personal needs.
At Home: Democrats find Shuster diffi-
cult to love, but they also find him impossible
to beat. His district has firm Republican loyal-
ties, and his outspoken partisanship on the
floor strikes a chord among constituents. While
he has had detractors in local political circles,
notably in the GOP organization of the 9th's
most populous county. Blair (Altoona). he re-
mains untouchable at the polls.
In 1984. he had an interesting, though
unsuccessful, Democratic challenger in 62-year-
old Nancy Kulp, who played "Miss Jane Hath-
Pennsylvania - 9th District
away- oil "The Beverly Hillbillies- televkion
comedy. Retired from show business and living
on a Pennsylvania farm, Kulp decided to chal-
lenge Shuster when it looked as if he would win
unopposed. She accused Shuster of voting
down the line with Reagan and ignoring the
needs of farmers, veterans and elderly constitu-
ents.
Unaccustomed to aggressive challenges.
Shuster counterattacked vigorously, launching
a heavy advertising campaign and at one point
saying of Kulp, "She's an outstanding come-
dian. I grew up watching her." The media
found Kulp's background and candidacy in-
triguing, hut the voters did not seem interested.
Shuster won re-election with two-thirds of the
vote.
Before entering politics. Shuster had a
successful business career with the Radio
Corporation of America and as an independent
electronics entrepreneur. When Republican
Rep. .1. Irving Whalley announced his retire-
ment in 1972. Shuster embarked on a self-
generated congressional campaign and won the
Republican primary over state Sen. D. Elmer
Hawbaker. Hawbaker was backed by the party
committees of Bedford and Blair counties.
Committee
Public Works and Transportation (2nd of 20 Republicans)
Surface Transportation (ranking). Aviation; Investigations and
Oversight.
Select Intelligence (6th of 6 Republicans)
Legislation; Oversight and Evaluation.
Elections
1986 General
Bud Shuster (R)
1984 General
Bud Shuster (R)
Nancy Kulp (D)
120,890 1100%)
118,437 (67%)
59,549 (33%)
Previous Winning Percentages: 1982 (65%) 1980 (100%)
1978 ( 75%) 1976 (100%) 1974 ( 57%) 1972 ( 62%)
District Vote For President
1984 1980
D 59,047 (33%) D 59.422
R 118,500 (67%) R 101,766
I 7,245
1986
Shuster (R)
1984
Shuster (R)
Kulp (D)
1976
(35%) D 71,159 (42%)
(60W R 94,421 (56%)
( 4% )
Campaign Finance
Receipts Expend-
Receipts from PACs itures
$299,910
$450,849
$85.891
8152,002
(51%)
$276,463
$183,284
(41%)
$498,954
$34.276
(40%)
$85.848
Voting Studies
Presidential Party
Support Unity
Conservative
Coalition
Year
S 0
S 0
? S 0
1986
77
22
85
11
90
8
1985
66
34
86
10
87
11
1984
63
37
83
15
90
8
1983
71
21
85
5
90
8
1982
56
23
60
13
60
18
1981
76
22
89
11
99
1
S = Support 0 = Opposition
Key Votes
Produce MX missiles (1985)
Cut federal subsidy for water projects (1985)
Weaken oun control laws (1986)
Cut back public housing construction (1986)
Aid Nicaraguan contras (1986)
Impose textile import limits over Reagan veto (1986)
Block chemical weapons production (1986)
Impose South African sanctions over Reagan veto (1986)
Interest Group Ratings
Year
ADA
ACU
AFL-CIO
CCUS
1986
5
90
29
94
1985
10
81
24
8.
1984
0
83
31
5:
1983
0
91
0
8
1982
20
80
29
9
1981
0
100
20
8'
130
?
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Bud Shuster, R-Pa.
Pennsylvania 9
To Pennsylvania Turnpike travelers,
this district, which crosses the Allegheny
Mountains. is a series of tunnels, long
climbs and sharp descents. To Republicans,
it is a predictable source of votes.
This central Pennsylvania region long
has been a passageway to the West and,
other than farming. transportation has been
its central focus. Before the coming of the
railroad, trade and travel had to take the
long ?vay around the mountains, ducking
south. The city of Altoona. in Blair County,
prospered as a rail center.
With the decline of the rail system, a
new travel-related culture sprung up along
the turnpike, the nation's first superhigh-
way, which opened in 1940. Its epitome is
Breezewood, the celebrated "Town of Mo-
tels" ? by night, a garish glow of neon signs
amid the mysterious mountain darkness.
For the most part. the 9th is a series of
small villages scattered among the moon-
South Central ?
Altoona
tains. It has little industry; its farmers raise
cattle for beef and milk. The isolation and
agricultural character of the area have bred
a strong strain of conservatism. Local Re-
publicans there like to boast that much of
the area within the 9th District has gone
Republican since 1860.
Altoona. which lost 10 percent of its
population in the 1970s, used to be a Demo-
cratic stronghold. Developed by the Penn-
sylvania Railroad, it has the giant Samuel
Rea Railroad Shops; just to the west of it.
the tracks form the famous Horseshoe
Curve, an engineering marvel. But many of
the railroad workers who voted Democratic
lost their jobs and left. Nowadays. Republi-
cans win Blair; Reagan took it by almost 2-
to-1 in 1984.
Population: 515.430. White 508.728 (99%). Black
4,727 (1%). Spanish origin 1,841 (0.4%). 18 and over
368.331(71%), 65 and over 64,934 (13%; Median age.
31.
onstration projects, and a companion measure
that allowed states to raise the speed limit to 65
on rural Interstates. The House easily overrode
Reagan's veto; the Senate, after first sustaining
the veto, later voted to override Reagan, enact-
ing the bill into law.
One of the issues on which the House and
Senate were at odds was a Shuster provision
banning the use of imported cement in federal
highway projects, and increasing from 50 to 85
percent the proportion of domestic products
that must he used to manufacture mass transit
buses and rail cars. Shuster has been active in
supporting "Buy American- language to bills to
promote C.S.-made products over imports.
Earlier in his career on Public Works,
Shuster and Howard negotiated a compromise
that led to enactment of a trucking deregula-
tion bill to ease restrictions on entry into the
trucking business.
Shuster has argued vociferously against air
bags as a safety requirement for automobiles
and worked to prevent air bag regulations from
going into effect. He has also fought require-
ments that buses and subways be fitted with
new equipment making them accessible to
handicapped people in wheelchairs.
Shuster's alliance with Howard and the
Democrats against the Reagan administration
1304
in the recent highway dispute is a symbol of his
evolution from an earlier role as partisan
"hatchet man- who made a habit of blasting
the Democratic majority almost daily on the
House floor.
From the day he arrived in Washington.
Shuster began focusing his ambitions on a
Republican leadership post. He was president
of his 1972 Republican House class. and after
three terms he decided to move for the chair-
manship of the Republican Policy Committee.
The front-runner for that _job. Nlinnesota's Bill
Frenzel, all but assumed it was his and did
little to win. Shuster simply outcampaigned
hint and won it. 80-55.
Shuster immediately turned the policy
committee into a sophisticated media opera?
tion, issuing releases on dozens of major issues
and holding news conferences in the House
Press Gallery to lacerate the Democratic major-
ity.
He also began firing a verbal barrage at the
Democrats nearly every day on the floor,
launching a brief filibuster to protest changes
in the schedule, and bringing a toy duck on the
floor to complain about a "lame-duck- session.
By mid-1980, Budget Chairman Robert N.
Giaimo was calling him "the hatchet man of the
Republican Party."
But Shuster was not concerned about his
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9 Bud Shuster (R)
Of Everett ? Elected 1972
Born: Jan. 23, 1932. Glassport, Pa.
Education: U. of Pittsburgh. B.S. 1954: Duquesne U..
M.B.A. 1960; American U., Ph.D. 1967.
Military Career Army, 1954-56.
Occupation: Corporate executive.
Family: Wife, Patricia Rommel; five children.
Religion: United Church of Christ.
Political Career No previous office.
Capitol Office: 2268 Rayburn Bldg. 20515; 225-2431.
In Washington: There has long been a
dual quality to Shuster's House career ? the
angry man who could deliver strident ha-
rangues against Democrats on the House floor
managed to work effectively with the same
Democratic majority on the Public Works
Committee. But more recently, as Shuster's
party leadership ambitions have faded, the
conflict has faded as well. Nowadays. Shuster is
first and foremost an important player in the
process of writing multibillion-dollar highway
ato in
Throughout his years in Congress, Shuster
has been an ally of road builders and other
highway users and a defender of the Highway
Trust Fund against attempts to use its money
for non-highway purposes. For years, he has
warned that the country's roads are deteriorat-
ing and need more maintenance funds. He was
chairman of the National Transportation Pol-
icy Study Committee, an ad hoc group created
by Congress.
Nowadays, as senior Republican on the
Surface Transportation Subcommittee at Pub-
lic Works, Shuster makes no pretense about his
support for the highway "demonstration proj-
ects" that are derided by critics as wasteful
pork-barrel spending. In fact, he treats highway
projects as an issue of constitutional rights.
"It's a congressional prerogative," he says. "We
find it absolutely repugnant that an adminis-
tration can say that it's all right for a faceless
bureaucrat to decide where money should be
spent, but it's wrong for a congressman to
identify crucial, needed projects."
There is no questioning Shuster's effec-
tiveness at steering highway money into his
district, or the extent to which it is appreciated
there. Motorists passing through the little town
of Everett. Pa., can avoid congestion by using
what is called the "Bud Shuster Byway" ? a
brief stretch of four- lane superhighway par.
Pennsylvania - 9th District
alleling the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Shuster
secured federal funding for the road.
Shuster has developed such a good working
relationship with Public Works Chairman
James J. Howard that it used to make people
wonder if he realized Howard was a Democrat.
In the 97th Congress, as Howard conducted a
two-year lobbying campaign to pry support for
highway funds out of the Reagan administra-
tion. Shuster was right beside him.
In the 98th Congress. during the battle
over the 1984 highway bill, Shuster joined if
Democrats in adding on numerous demonstra-
tion projects ? including a $90 million, 12-mile
highway widening project for his own district.
Shuster never wavered in his loyalty to his '
Democratic chairman, criticizing administra-
tion threats to veto the bill.
The highway bill was not enacted in 1984,
forcing Howard and Shuster to return to it in
the 99th Congress. In 1985, Congress cleared
legislation simply releasing needed Interstate
highway funds, stripping from the bill contro-
versial add-ons such as the demonstration
projects and mass transit funds.
Those provisions were included in a five-
year highway and mass transit authorization
bill introduced in 1985. By the end of 1986. the
massive highway bill had grown to include
about 100 special "demonstration" projects at a
cost of $1.2 billion over five years. But the
Senate refused to accept all those projects,
insisting instead that states be allowed to raise
the speed limit on Interstate roads to 65 mph
? something House leaders were unwilling to
do unless a number of conditions were imposed
on states as well.
The arguments carried over into the 100th
Congress. Early in 1987, despite White House
threats of a veto, Congress cleared an 888
billion bill, including $890 million for dem-
1303
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