Bud Shuster: “I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the gentleman's attempts and work to try to decrease the…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the gentleman's attempts and work to try to decrease the deficits and the debt in this country, but Essential Air Service is just that. He named a few communities, and they are close to--I guess I can't make a great argument about those, but there are places like Alaska, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, or Iowa. These folks are living miles and miles, hours and hours away-- several hours, in many cases--from the nearest airport. As Mr. DeFazio pointed out, this connects those communities for economic development. The other thing, he makes a point, as a conservative, when you pay user fees into a trust fund and it goes to that intended purpose--in this case, a small piece of that goes to Essential Air Service--that is what we should be doing in America: people that use something are contributing to that service or whatever that government agency is providing them. Again, under the bill, in 2012, we put reforms in to reform Essential Air Service; and, this bill, the underlying bill, directs the GAO to study and find out the effects of those reforms. So, again, while I support and applaud the gentleman's efforts to help get the debt under control, this is not the place to start. Mr. Chairman, I urge rejection of this amendment. Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. O'Halleran).”