Fresh from the victory of winning the largest appropriation - $110 million - for the essential air service (EAS) program from the Bush administration, Regional Air Partners (RAP) wants a grass-roots campaign to hold on to the program. Long targeted by Bush for scaling back to a $50 million bare minimum...
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Fresh from the victory of winning the largest appropriation - $110 million - for the essential air service (EAS) program from the Bush administration, Regional Air Partners (RAP) wants a grass-roots campaign to hold on to the program.
Long targeted by Bush for scaling back to a $50 million bare minimum program, Maurice Parker, RAP's executive director, is circulating a September Republican Study Committee document that calls for the outright elimination of EAS and slashing $8.3 billion from the Airport Improvement Program. While the document was a general guide drafted by 100 House Republicans to cut billions over five years from a wide group of programs to free money for Hurricane Katrina relief, Parker warned that it is still a blueprint to cut EAS either in fiscal 2007 or when Congress again rewrites the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) authorization legislation.
"It shows exactly what they want to do - eliminate the program," Parker told Regional Aviation News. "They did not leave any room for doubt about what they want to do.
"Why this [program] has drawn the ire of so many, we don't understand. We want to make those who depend upon EAS to realize this is not a joke. It is not something you can close your eyes and make it go away."
The Republican document notes: "Given the proliferation of options, many travelers prefer to drive to a larger airport where they can find an even better fare than a subsidized flight from the small community. If small communities consider air service important, they could provide these subsidies themselves."
Most small communities do not have the money to provide the local subsidy, said Faye Malarkey, the lobbyist for the Regional Airline Association (RAA). Many of these small communities are already struggling to provide funds for essential services such as police and fire departments. "Take away the EAS program and the simultaneous reductions in air service would greatly exacerbate the situation, causing severe economic distress," she said.
As Congress begins a multi-year task this year to rewrite the FAA authorization measure, both Parker and Malarkey said lawmakers may opt to revamp the EAS program.
"How do you expect to make it work more effectively if you do not involve the carriers and the small communities in the process?" Parker asked. "There have been few, if any, interactions with the air carriers or the communities to help make this program work better.
"The impediments to the program really need to be dealt with seriously or we will fall prey to the Republican study to just let it die."
The RAA is "prepared to work with Congress in order to construct a meaningful and reasonable reform" of the EAS program, Malarkey said. "RAA understands that changes are contributing to the need for some common sense changes to the program. RAA has long been open to reasonable changes in eligibility criteria provided any resulting cost savings are reinvested in the program."
Malarkey has not reacted with alarm to the "sky is falling" alert that RAP has issued. EAS proponents "successfully defeated" the study group's proposal last fall just as they defeated previous attempts to gut the program, she said. "Should we see a similar proposal [this] year, we are prepared to fight them for full funding."
>>Contacts: Maurice Parker, RAP, (602) 685-4112; Faye Malarkey, RAA, (202) 367-2273.<<
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