text: As the House continues to debate the FY14 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill, today I successfully offered an amendment to protect the critical Essential Air Service program (EAS) in areas outside the contiguous 48 States, on a vote of 239-175.    If not for my amendment, Essential Air Service communities throughout Alaska would have been excluded from this decadeÛªs long program that was established to protect rural communities after the airline industry was deregulated.