Capital Scene: Lost Highway

CAPITAL Lost Highway SCENE SANDY HUME WASHINGTON, D.C.

T 1:30 in the morning on May 22, freshman Republican Kay Granger of Texas trudged wearily down the long hallway of the Russell House Office Building to a meeting with Bud Shuster, chairman of the House Transportation Committee. The House was debating a controversial Shuster proposal to add $12 billion more to proposed transportation spend- ing, a cheeky power play that frantic House leaders warned would demolish the fledgling budget deal. Shuster told Transportation Commit- tee members such as Kay Granger— who, as a candidate, had relied on Shu- sters promises of money for a major highway expansion in her district—that he expected their support. Rep. Granger sat across from the 65-year-old chair- man, perhaps the most feared chairman in the House, and told him she had made up her mind: She would oppose him. “For all of us, what you bring home for transportation is very impor- tant to whether or not you get elected,” Mr. Hume is a reporter for The Hill newspa- per. she explained, a point her apprehensive staffers had repeatedly stressed to her. “But in this case, I said the most impor- tant thing was to do what I said I was going to do: balance the budget.”

SH

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Sandy Hume

CAPITAL Lost Highway SCENE SANDY HUME WASHINGTON, D.C.

T 1:30 in the morning on May 22, freshman Republican Kay Granger of Texas trudged wearily down the long hallway of the Russell House Office Building to a meeting with Bud Shuster, chairman of the House Transportation Committee. The House was debating a controversial Shuster proposal to add $12 billion more to proposed transportation spend- ing, a cheeky power play that frantic House leaders warned would demolish the fledgling budget deal. Shuster told Transportation Commit- tee members such as Kay Granger— who, as a candidate, had relied on Shu- sters promises of money for a major highway expansion in her district—that he expected their support. Rep. Granger sat across from the 65-year-old chair- man, perhaps the most feared chairman in the House, and told him she had made up her mind: She would oppose him. “For all of us, what you bring home for transportation is very impor- tant to whether or not you get elected,” Mr. Hume is a reporter for The Hill newspa- per. she explained, a point her apprehensive staffers had repeatedly stressed to her. “But in this case, I said the most impor- tant thing was to do what I said I was going to do: balance the budget.”