On the recordJune 9, 2014
The Essential Air Service program, or EAS, is an expensive government handout. It is, in effect, welfare for airplanes. Page 9 of this bill states that, under the EAS, the per-passenger subsidy for flights that would otherwise not exist to rural communities, excluding Hawaii and Alaska, is capped at $500 per passenger. That is simply too high. I don't see any reason why we should be paying people $500 to fly from communities like Muscles Shoals, not when this Congress is cutting food aid programs and development block grants to communities. I think this is a very poor use of taxpayer funds. It is an example of the waste, fraud, and abuse that we constantly decry. My amendment would reduce the $500 per passenger subsidy allowed under the EAS to a still very high $250 because $500 per passenger is simply outrageous. If passengers don't want to fly those aviation routes, then those subsidies shouldn't exist, and in fact, the routes should exist. For $500 per passenger, we could rent a limousine for every single person that boards these EAS flights and drive them to the nearest commercial airport. I understand the need for rural services for necessary aspects of life like Postal Service, telephones, and even the Internet, but I cannot understand the need to subsidize regular airline flights that would otherwise not exist to the tune of $500 per passenger. Many of these flights fly empty. Many have only one or two or three passengers on them on a large airplane.…
