The president’s budget proposal for the federal fiscal year that starts Oct. 1 is full of bold moves, big changes and controversy. That was expected. But one proposed spending cut stands out as closer to home than others.
The budget office proposes to reduce federal funding for the nationwide Essential Air Service program by 52%.
Among 177 small communities in the 50 states and Puerto Rico, the program covers daily air service to Wrangell, Petersburg, Yakutat and Cordova.
What is particularly aggravating is the budget office’s explanation of why. It says the program “funnels taxpayer dollars to airlines to subsidize half-empty flights from airports that are within easy commuting distance from each other.”
No doubt the eager staffer who wrote that falsehood never tried the “easy commuting distance” between Wrangell or Petersburg and the airports in Ketchikan, Juneau or Seattle. It’s another example of overzealous zealots who believe in cutting first and never asking questions.
That’s not good government or smart budgeting; it’s sloppy and irresponsible and harmful.
Congress created the Essential Air Service program back in 1978 as it was deregulating the airline industry, to ensure that small communities were not abandoned and left without any service.
In Alaska, the program has been whittled down over the years, from 184 communities at the start to 65 today. The cost of those 65 to the federal treasury is $42 million a year. The U.S. Department of Transportation, which administers the program, recently signed a new two-year contract with Alaska Airlines to continue its twice-daily passenger flights and weekly freighters into Wrangell, Petersburg, Yakutat and Cordova.
Nationwide, the program costs $592 million a year. The money comes from fees paid by foreign air carriers that fly through U.S. airspace, as well as excise taxes on domestic passenger ticket sales.
The president’s budget is a proposal, not law, and congressional approval would be required to cut Essential Air Service funding. In 2017, President Donald Trump talked of eliminating the program entirely, but like so many of his takeoff attempts, that one never left the gate.
Alaska’s two U.S. senators have both said they understand the need and support the program.
For the sake of the communities’ economies, their residents and everyone who has ever needed to fly out for medical care, Congress should ground this bad idea just like it did in 2017. The president’s budget-cutting staff needs to look at a map, measure that “easy commuting distance,” and shut down their engines before they taxi any farther down the wrong budget runway.
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