Senate May Tank FAA Bill To Keep Taxpayers On the Hook for Their Flights

ATR ^ | 2011-07-21 | Mattie Corrao

[92nina]

Yet another Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) extension passed the House of Representatives yesterday, the 21st time the agency has been reauthorized by a short-term measure after its authorization expired in 2007. We have warned in the past that the FAA’s wasteful and inefficient programs make it an ideal place to look for potential taxpayer savings. And today, Republican members of the House will endeavor to do just that, scrutinizing legislation that has gotten a free pass for four years by reforming the Essential Air Service (EAS). The EAS provides subsidies that make air travel to remote, formerly unprofitable, locations available – in effect, underwriting flights home for Members of Congress who don’t reside close to a big city airport. Since 2001, EAS expenditures have increased by 300 percent, amounting to over $200 million in FY 2010 for the program. Each flight can cost taxpayers up to $3,720 per passenger. The willingness to cap, and ultimately phase out, this wasteful subsidy shows that House Republicans are serious about reforming wasteful spending programs...

Read more: http://www.atr.org/senate-may-tank-faa-bill-taxpayers-a6354#ixzz1SqsY9Imd

[92nina]

Senators enjoy taxpayer-subsidized flights to their districts...and may shut down the FAA in order to keep them.

Take this article and others I found to the fight to the Libs on their own turf; put the Left on the defensive at at Digg and at Reddit and in Stumbleupon and Delicious

[Beaten Valve]

I know that DELTA just announced that they were dropping service to about 20+ small cities....

[Wuli]

ESA should be voided as a policy and defunded as a program.

If a legislator whose home is in an area without regularly scheduled airline service, they have two options (a) move, or (b) try to start a private airline to attempt to operate that service for a profit.

It deserves NO taxpayer subsidies.

Particularly in today’s era of modern communication, it’s not as if they are incapable of being in touch with the communities they represent, or Washington, D.C., just because they are not physically there.