New Transportation Committee chair takes reins

Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) was named the chairman of the House’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Wednesday, succeeding Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) after Mica’s tenure ended due to Republican-enforced term limits.

Shuster’s term will start in January when the 113th Congress takes over. Looming for the 113th Congress are, immediately, “fiscal cliff” negotiations, but it will also have to craft the successor to the MAP-21 highway funding bill passed this year, which expires in 2014.