Senator Baucus Pushes Bipartisan Effort to Support Essential Air Service, Montana Jobs

Senator Creates Senate Essential Air Services Caucus

Montana’s senior U.S. Senator, Max Baucus http://baucus.senate.gov/ announced today his role as creator of the new Senate Essential Air Service Caucus, which he will co-chair with Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine). The bipartisan group will work to address the needs of communities that rely on EAS funding to ensure rural travelers access to air service and who would otherwise have to travel hours to the nearest airport.

The Senate Essential Air Service Caucus will also work on substantive measures to improve the program and boost efficiency.

"Montana jobs rely on Essential Air Service. In this economy, it is reckless to strand our rural Montana communities and limit their ability to attract business and tourists," said Baucus, senior member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee. "Transportation serves everyone regardless of political party and I’m certain we can work together to find common ground. Rural America and Montana jobs depend on Essential Air Service."

Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) has introduced an amendment to the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization bill to eliminate the Essential Air Service program which would cut service to about 150 communities.

Baucus is leading the charge against the effort which would eliminate EAS service to eight Montana communities including:

· Glasgow

· Glendive

· Havre

· Lewistown

· Miles City

· Sidney

· West Yellowstone

· Wolf Point

The Senate Essential Air Service Caucus is co-chaired by Sen. Baucus and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine); additional members include Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine); Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Nebraska) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).

Production quality video and audio of Senator Baucus’ comments are available below.

· MP3 audio file: http://demradio.senate.gov/actualities/baucus/020811_BAUCUS.mp3

· MPEG2 video file: http://gp1d.senate.gov/sdmc/Baucus/020811_BAUCUS_PF.mpg

· Pathfire Feed:

1. On the left side of the Pathfire/DMG main page, click on Video News Feed (Master VNF Locator).

2. From the expanded list, double-click on VNF Provider B.

3. Click the U.S. Senate tab.

4. Locate and click (MT1) MT, Baucus. The link to the video will be displayed in the pane on the right.

For further instructions, visit http://democrats.senate.gov/tv/pathfire/baucus.pdf.

If you have trouble accessing these files or need another format, please contact Jennifer Donohue at [email protected] or 202.224.2651.

Contact: Kate Downen 406-224-5056 or Kathy Weber 406-657-5915