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Regional Aviation
News
RAP To Lobby Congress On EAS Funding Cuts
February 20, 2003
Regional Aviation Partners plans to lobby Congress to eliminate a huge cut to the Essential Air Service program in the Administration’s fiscal 2004 budget. President Bush’s budget slashes EAS funding from $115 million to $50 million a year and eliminates the Small Community Air Service Development pilot program.
The Regional Airline Association also will lobby Congress to reinstate the full EAS funding, but Faye Malarkey, director of legislative affairs, said there is little interest on Capitol Hill to reinstate the Small Community Air Service Development program. RAP wants Congress to continue funding EAS at fiscal 2002 levels and place a moratorium on eliminating any future communities. It wants to reinstate eligibility to communities that lost service based on what RAP considers “outdated standards” and “develop new safety and operating environments designed to reduce operating costs without compromising safety.”
RAP Executive Director Maurice Parker told The DAILY the organization will focus on FAA reauthorization and try to change some discretionary requirements to make them more concrete. He noted, for example, that DOT requires a community be at least 210 miles from an airport to qualify for EAS service. The agency eliminated eligibility for Ottumwa, Iowa because the community was 3.67 miles short of that distance requirement. “While we acknowledge that an overhaul of the EAS system is much needed, the old ‘starve out’ plan is not the answer,” Parker said, noting there has been “no active effort on the part of the Administration to meet and confer with small communities” on coming up with money and stimulus to attract air service.”
RAP will lobby Senate Commerce Committee Chair John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) to reinstate the funds. -DM
Source: Aviation Daily,
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