Lobbyist Filing Contradicts Chevy Chase Mayor
Shuster Brother Lobbies Congress Against Purple Line
Press release issued January 26, 2014
New questions arose today about the Town of Chevy Chase's relationship with the brother of House Transportation and Infrastructure Chair Bill Shuster.
The new questions follow an expose in this morning's Washington Post of the small wealthy town's intention to pay $400,000 to the firm of Pennsylvania lawyer-lobbyist Robert Shuster. The town has tried for years to block the building of the Purple Line, a badly needed transit link that would run along its border. In the Post article, Mayor Pat Burda defends the town's behavior by saying that “We’re not lobbying Congress.”
But a disclosure form that Robert Shuster's firm filed with the U.S. House of Representatives shows just the opposite. It states explicitly that Shuster and his partners are lobbying the House of Representatives and Senate for the Town of Chevy Chase.
“The news about this unseemly arrangement gets worse and worse,” said Action Committee for Transit vice-president Ronit Aviva Dancis. ACT, a volunteer-run organization of transit supporters that has advocated for the Purple Line since 1986, first unearthed the connection between Shuster and the town.