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NewsNovember 22, 2005

A new federal spending bill could mean lower air fares for Missouri travelers. The state would become the latest to gain an exemption from the Wright Amendment, a 26-year-old federal law that restricts flights from Love Field airport in Dallas. The airport is home to Southwest Airlines...

From wire and staff reports

~ Congress also removed two Alaska bridge projects worth $452.5 million.

A new federal spending bill could mean lower air fares for Missouri travelers.

The state would become the latest to gain an exemption from the Wright Amendment, a 26-year-old federal law that restricts flights from Love Field airport in Dallas. The airport is home to Southwest Airlines.

Ed Stewart, spokesman for Southwest Airlines in Dallas, said the airline would begin offering nonstop flights from Love Field to St. Louis and Kansas City "as soon as humanly possible" once President Bush signs the bill into law.

U.S. Sen. Kit Bond added the exemption to a massive treasury, transportation and housing spending bill. The House approved the bill on Friday and the Senate then passed it by voice vote.

"I am pleased I was able to exempt Missouri from this anti-competitive, anti-consumer policy," Bond said.

The 1979 federal law limits flights from Love Field to nearby states. It was meant to help growth at Dallas-Forth Worth International Airport, home of American Airlines.

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But critics said it prevents passengers in 85 percent of the country from buying low air fares to North Texas.

The latest spending bill also removes federally earmarked funds for two controversial Alaskan bridge projects that critics have called the "bridge to nowhere." It also enacts Amtrak reforms and restricts the use of federal funds on eminent-domain projects.

"This bill is a product of a lot of hard work and hard decisions," said Bond, chairman of the Senate transportation appropriations subcommittee.

The bill removes the $452.5 million earmarked for the Anchorage and Ketchikan, Alaska bridges contained in the highway reauthorization bill approved earlier this year. The bridge for Ketchikan would have linked the small town to sparsely populated Gravina Island.

Bond said Congress will allow the state of Alaska to use the federal money for other transportation projects.

Bond said House and Senate conferees reached agreement with the Bush administration to keep Amtrak running while demanding accountability.

The eminent-domain provision, pushed by Bond, bars spending federal money on any federal, state or local project that involves taking property by eminent domain except for developments such as highways, mass transit, airports, utilities or other public-use projects.

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