05.15.25

Senator Collins Questions Secretary of Transportation on Rural Airports Program, Maine Maritime Academy

 

“In Maine, we have five airports that would not have commercial air service but for the Essential Air Service program.”

 

Q&A on Rural Airports Program: Click HERE to watch and HERE to download. 

Q&A on Maine Maritime Academy: Click HERE to watch and HERE to download. 

 

Washington, D.C. – At a hearing to review the Fiscal Year 2026 budget request for the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), U.S. Senator Susan Collins, Chair of the Appropriations Committee, questioned Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy on proposed budget cuts to the Essential Air Service Program (EAS) and importance of supporting maritime workforce institutions like Maine Maritime Academy.  

 

Q&A on Cuts to EAS Funding:

 

Senator Collins:

 

This program is a lifeline to rural communities, not only in Maine, but across America.  In Maine, we have five airports that would not have commercial air service but for the Essential Air Service program. They include Augusta, Waterville, Hancock County-Bar Harbor, Rockland, and Presque Isle, Maine.  

 

Just last weekend, I participated in a groundbreaking for a new terminal at the Presque Isle Airport.

 

This is really important for economic development, for getting to medical treatment, for tourism. It's so important to rural America to have this program.

 

How would you plan to support air service to rural communities who rely on this program, absent a sufficiently funded EAS program?

 

Secretary Duffy:

 

I am going to work on trying to bring efficiencies to the program, bring costs down on the program. As I dig into that, I'd be happy to partner and communicate with all of you on the committee as we go through that process.

 

Again, I do understand how meaningful Essential Air Service is for so many communities across the country. And I do need to do some work in the coming weeks, and as I do that, I'd be happy to have a conversation with you about how we're seeing it, and how we think we can do more with less.

 

Senator Collins:

 

Thank you. I think you're going to need to do more with more, but I appreciate your commitment to work with the committee.

 

Q&A on Maine Maritime Academy:

 

Senator Collins:

 

Maine is home of the Maine Maritime Academy, which has a well-earned reputation for educating some of the best mariners anywhere in the world. And fortunately, the faculty and the midshipmen are eagerly awaiting the completion of the Academy's new state-of-the-art training vessel, which is going to greatly enhance mariner training and preparedness.  

 

I understand that you recently saw Maine Maritime's training vessel during a trip to the Philadelphia shipyard, and I welcome you to come see it again after it has completed its voyage to the beautiful coast of Maine.

 

Could you talk just briefly, because we're out of time almost, about the emphasis that the Administration is placing on better preparing our maritime workforce?

 

Secretary Duffy:

 

The ship is beautiful, by the way.  [The U.S. Maritime Administration] is building ships on budget and on time – The [State of] Maine is one of them. But I think we have to invest in shipbuilding in America.  The seas are so important for defense, for moving products, and we have ceded this territory to Japan, South Korea, to China, specifically.

 

And we have to revitalize American shipbuilding. It's going to take vision, and it's going to take help from this body, and presidential leadership, but I do think it's important.  

 

And then, when we have those ships, we need mariners to sail those ships, and our academies across the country are critical to bring out those young men and women who can operate the great vessels for this country.

 

###