Support the McCain Amendment to Eliminate the Low-Priority Essential Air Service Program!
An Open Letter to the U.S. Senate: Take a First Step to Fiscal Responsibility
Dear Senator:
On behalf of the 362,000-member National Taxpayers Union
(NTU), I urge you to vote “Yes” on Senator John McCain’s amendment to S. 223,
the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Reauthorization Bill. Approving this
amendment, which would repeal the Essential Air Service (EAS) program, is an
ideal way for the Senate to demonstrate its commitment toward eliminating
low-priority expenditures and beginning to restore fiscal responsibility to the
federal budget.
Created in 1978 as a 10-year venture that would ease the
transition to a more market-driven commercial aviation sector, EAS has, like
many other federal programs, engendered constituencies that have kept the
program alive far beyond any demonstrable purpose. Indeed, NTU questioned the
need for EAS in the first place, given the fact that robust and competitive air
services would fulfill consumers’ needs more efficiently than any government
subsidization scheme. Unfortunately, many of the taxpayers’ worst fears about
EAS have come true. The program now operates in more than 100 areas of the
country, even as air travelers’ choices are numerous. In fact, the Government
Accountability Office concluded in 2009 that many Americans are shunning
EAS-subsidized flights and airports in favor of lower-cost fares offered at
hubs that are still reasonably accessible by automobile. This free-market
evolution can be encouraged by easing tax and regulatory burdens on airlines
and customers.
Just as other federal transportation programs like Amtrak
pour tax dollars into unprofitable and low-traveled routes which consumers bypass
out of preference for other commercial alternatives, EAS seems to operate more out
of satisfying political considerations than addressing any perceived market
defects. Your colleague Senator Coburn provided a vivid illustration of these flaws
in a report, Wastebook 2010, late
last year:
The cities of Macon and
Athens, Georgia are both less than a 90-minute drive from Atlanta‘s
Hartsfield-Jackson International airport. Despite this, the U.S. Department of
Transportation subsidized 26 flights per week to and from each city at a clip
of $464 per passenger for Macon and $135 for Athens. Passengers pay $39 each
for a seat on the 50-minute flight. … The local newspaper reports that the
Macon [service] averaged 10 passengers a day, while Athens averaged 12 EAS-subsidized
flights. By law, the Department of Transportation subsidies are capped at $200
for flights to airports less than 210 miles from a large or medium hub, which
Atlanta is.
EAS’s justification may always have been dubious, but in
today’s fiscal environment its continued existence is even less defensible. The
savings at stake from passage of the McCain Amendment – $200 million –
certainly won’t erase the current fiscal year’s projected $1.5 trillion
deficit, but if the Senate cannot eliminate this blatant example of
low-priority spending, taxpayers will have every right to question Congress’s
sincerity in the vital endeavor of bringing the budget back under control.
NTU has expressed concerns over several portions of the
FAA bill, including the threat of higher Passenger Facility Charges and a lack
of progress in moving toward a private sector-driven model for air traffic
control. Senator McCain’s proposal provides a key opportunity to break from the
tax-and-spend philosophy that has dominated past FAA legislation and to
recognize the role of commercial aviation in America’s economic recovery. Once
again, NTU asks that you support the McCain Amendment; roll call votes
pertaining to this measure will be significantly weighted in our annual Rating
of Congress.
Sincerely,
Pete Sepp
Executive Vice President
PDF
Letter
