Republicans Vote to Restrict Their Own Constituents' Access to Flights

Three House Republicans voted in favor of striking down the Department of Transportation's Essential Air Service (EAS), a government program that puts rural Americans at risk of reduced flight services, despite representing communities that benefit from EAS.

Congress took up the bipartisan Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill on Tuesday. More than 100 amendments were filed against the draft, including one markup from GOP Representatives Scott Perry and Tom McClintock to strike EAS authorization from the legislation. In a 386-49 vote, the House agreed to not adopt the amendment into the bill.

Among those who voted in favor were three members of Congress who agreed to eliminate the government program despite the fact that EAS directly serves their constituents, a Newsweek analysis found. The DOT program overwhelmingly serves communities represented by a Republican member of Congress. Of the 107 rural areas, excluding those in Alaska and Puerto Rico, only 15 are served by Democrats. So, nearly 86 percent of EAS communities are represented by a Republican.

Tuesday's "yes" votes came from Representatives Eric Burlinson of Missouri, James Comer of Kentucky and Alex Mooney of West Virginia. Burlinson and Comer each represent one EAS community, Joplin and Paducah, respectively, while Mooney represents three: Clarksburg/Fairmont, Parkersburg and Morgantown. The other 47 Republicans representing EAS communities voted against the amendment.

Mooney defended his vote on Thursday, saying that the EAS program was created in 1978 as a 10-year program that is long past its end date.

"Forty-five years later we are still subsidizing airports," Mooney told Newsweek. "As Ronald Reagan said, 'Government programs, once launched never disappear.' America is $32 trillion in debt and borrowing money from China and racking up record inflation. The truth is our nation needs elected leaders with the courage to cut government spending to save America."

Newsweek reached out to Burlinson and Comer via email for comment.

"Rural America deserves to have access to commercial flights," Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on Twitter ahead of the vote. "This amendment would destroy the ability for airports, including those in my district, to be a part of the National Air Transportation System. I don't believe in punishing rural America."

The comprehensive reauthorization bill was unanimously approved by the Transportation Committee last month, despite pushback on some of the proposed aviation reforms from union leaders and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Congress will need to come to an agreement on the package before the current authority expires at the end of September.

The original proposal includes raising the mandatory commercial pilot retirement age from 65 to 67, prohibiting air carriers from reducing the size of passenger seats until the FAA sets its own rules, and mandating passenger compensations for lengthy delays.

But the GOP's right-wing flank is once again using the sweeping legislation to focus on social issues, as they did with last week's National Defense Authorization Act. On Tuesday, the House Rules Committee took up 104 amendments to the bill, including the reinstatement of pilots who left the industry over vaccine mandates and new restrictions on funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs.

The amendment introduced by Perry and McClintock targets EAS, which was put into place after the Airline Deregulation Act passed in 1978 to guarantee that small communities in the U.S. would continue to be served by certificated air carriers, even though commercial service in those areas would not be profitable. Without the program, air carriers are not obliged to maintain service in those rural areas.

Michigan has nine EAS communities, Montana and Nebraska each have seven and Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota and New York each have five communities served by the program.

A number of the EAS communities have overlap when it comes to congressional representation. For example, Representatives Eli Crane of Arizona, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Tracey Mann of Kansas, Jack Bergman of Michigan, Matt Rosendale of Montana, Adrian Smith of Nebraska, Elise Stefanik of New York and Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota—all of whom voted in favor of keeping EAS—represent three or more EAS communities.

Bergman and Smith tie for having the most EAS communities in their district, with Bergman representing seven of Michigan's nine areas and Smith representing all seven of Nebraska's towns.

Representatives Pete Stauber of Minnesota and Dusty Johnson of South Dakota, who both represent EAS communities,spoke in opposition of the amendment on Tuesday, blasting the markup as bolstering parts of their district as "flyover county" and a measure that unfairly punishes their constituents just because "we live in rural America."

"Our nation has always had a national commitment to infrastructure," Johnson told the House floor. "That's been true whether it's been the interstate highway system, universal telephone service or rural electrification."

"We don't ask each rural county to pay exclusively for their portion of the interstate or high voltage transmission line that resides within their county borders," the South Dakota Republican said. "That, sir, would be absurd."

There are also 12 House Democrats whose constituents live in EAS communities. They all voted against the EAS amendment.

Update 7/20/23, 1:25 p.m. ET: This story was updated with comment from Mooney.