Senate resolution supports King-Hinds’ Essential Air Service bill

SENATE Vice President Karl King-Nabors and Sen. Jude U. Hofschneider have prefiled Senate Joint Resolution 24-3 to support H.R. 2132, which U.S. Congresswoman Kimberlyn King-Hinds introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives to include the CNMI in the U.S. Department of Transportation's Essential Air Service program.

The Rota lawmakers unanimously adopted a similar resolution, Rota Legislative Delegation Resolution 24-4, last week.

According to the Senate joint resolution, which also requires action by the House of Representatives, the CNMI “has struggled for decades with affordable and reliable means of air travel between [its] most populated islands.”

In order to address these transportation problems, King-Hinds introduced H.R. 2132, a bill aimed at reestablishing eligibility for CNMI airports to participate in USDOT's EAS program, which was created by the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, allowing small, rural U.S. communities to maintain vital air service connections.

The EAS program presently supports more than 150 communities in the U.S., and has provided government-subsidized air service to a multitude of small and rural communities for decades.

The CNMI previously benefited from this program, the Senate resolution said.

Continental Air Micronesia received temporary EAS subsidies in 1982 and 1984. However, this was halted with the passage of the Federal Aviation Administration's Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, which resulted in over 600 communities losing eligibility for assistance under the EAS program.