A handful of federal programs impacting rural Pennsylvania are
on the chopping block again.

On Tuesday, U.S. Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., said the programs
slated to be cut in the proposed 2007 federal budget include the
Essential Air Service, Community Services Block Grant and Perkins
loan programs, along with rural health care accounts.

The spending plan was unveiled Monday by President Bush.

“On so many essential accounts – programs that have done so much
to strengthen the long-term health and economic security of rural
America – the president’s budget request appears to have come up
woefully short,” Peterson said. “This year’s budget request, to put
it mildly, needs a lot of work.”

There are some bright spots, however. Included in the budget is
a hike of $25 million to help local communities treat
methamphetamine addiction and a $600 million increase in funding
for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). The
document also includes a $5 million increase in the federal student
drug testing program.

“The president’s budget request this year rightly reflects the
difficult fiscal challenges our nation faces today, and
acknowledges the need to rein in the continued and unsustainable
growth of federal spending while ensuring that our military and law
enforcement personnel have the tools they need to defend our
nation,” said Peterson, who is up for re-election this year.

“But, as I’ve said in years past, balancing the budget is not
accomplished simply by making deep, wholesale spending cuts. It’s
also imperative that we strengthen our economy along the way by
creating new jobs and expanding opportunity to rural parts of the
country that in lean budget years are too often called upon to
shoulder a disproportionate share of the burden.”

Peterson said he will be on the front lines in the battle to
retain the essential programs as co-chairman of the Congressional
Rural Caucus and member of the House Appropriations Committee.

According to Peterson, the Essential Air Service program is
slated to be cut by $60 million, a decrease that could greatly
impact Bradford Regional Airport.

“It seems like every year we go through this,” Airport Director
Tom Frungillo said. “There’s a lot of members of Congress that
realize this is a very important program and I hope they will
continue to fight for it.”

Like other small, rural airports nationwide, Bradford Regional
found itself under the auspices of EAS in the wake of Sept. 11,
2001. The program ensures that communities that had commercial air
service before deregulation continue to receive it. Since that
point, airport officials have been working to remove the airport
from the yoke of EAS and are currently waiting word from the U.S.
Department of Transportation regarding which carrier will be
providing service to the facility.

Last year, Colgan Air Inc., announced it was looking to
renegotiate its two-year contract under the program.

“The (congressman) will fight for EAS again this year, as he has
done in so many years past,” Peterson’s Communications Director
Chris Tucker said. “That’s why Congressman Peterson came to
Washington: to defend rural interests and make sure that rural
communities aren’t left behind by a federal government that too
often caters to our friends in the cities and suburbs.”

Another area which has come under scrutiny in the last few
budgets are the block grant programs, which supply funding to local
municipalities to improve their housing stock, infrastructure and
lower poverty.

“It’s unfortunate,” Sara Andrews, executive director of the
Bradford Office of Economic and Community Development, said. “It
appears Housing and Urban Development or the president’s budget
people don’t have a realistic view of what goes on in America as
far as the needs of local communities.”

Andrews said if the funding is taken away, it would prove
“disastrous” to the city, adding the program is used to leverage
other funding. This year, according to Andrews, the city stands to
sustain a 23 percent decrease in funding in the program.

“It appears to me this presidency will do this every year,”
Andrews said. “It’s going to be another battle of writing letters
and contacting people in Washington to tell them how this impacts
us.”

Meanwhile, the Perkins program is also vitally important,
providing support for vocational-technical programs in the Bradford
Area School District, specifically at the high school, which has a
comprehensive program in place.

Superintendent Sandra Romanowski said the funding helps the
district provide three classroom aides for the vo-tech program in
the automobile, buildings and grounds and carpentry classes.

“Those aides help children who are struggling academically and
with help in reading and mathematics,” Romanowski said. “Without
the funding, we wouldn’t have that support for them.”