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Washington, DC – Congressman Bill Shuster, after working with the offices of Senators Arlen Specter and Rick Santorum, today announced a provision to the Fiscal Year 2006 Transportation Appropriations Bill granting a one-year extension for the Virtual Primary Airport (VPA) Program. The bill passed the Senate yesterday with the language and now heads to a House-Senate conference committee to work out the differences in the bills.
“The provision would give the Altoona-Blair Airport one extra year to get their numbers up and it was a team effort getting it included, but nothing is finalized. Now, we need to continue working to keep it in the final version sent to President Bush,” said Congressman Shuster. “I sent a letter to my colleagues in Congress urging their support for the extension because many airports around the country, including our own Blair Airport, have not fully recovered from 9/11 and need this extension.”
“I am pleased my colleagues in the Senate have adopted this amendment to the FY06 Transportation Appropriations Bill,” said Senator Specter. “This legislation, cosponsored by Senator Santorum and myself, will temporarily ensure that nearly 50 rural airports, including five in Pennsylvania, will not lose substantial federal funding due to a decrease of passenger boardings as a result of the effects of 9/11. Commercial air service in Pennsylvania’s rural communities is vital because it greatly increases the potential for economic development and job creation in those regions. I look forward to working with Congressman Shuster to ensure this provision is contained in the final legislation passed by Congress.”
The VPA Program was established to help local and regional airports recover in the wake of September 11, 2001, and reached its known, expected and publicized end on October 1, 2005. Blair Airport needed to get its passenger numbers back up to pre-9/11 norms in order to be eligible.
“With the new flights to and from Washington’s Dulles Airport there has been an increase in recent months, but we need to remain focused on getting the passenger numbers back above 10,000 annually,” Shuster added. “This would put the safety net back in place for one more year, but the magic number is still 10,000.”
The bill passed the Senate yesterday and passed the House June 30, 2005. The two chambers will now have a conference committee work out the differences in the bill before it heads to the White House. Congressman Shuster is a subcommittee chairman on the Transportation Committee. |
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