U.S. Department of 

Transportation 

Office of the Secretary 

Of Transportation 

The Honorable Jeff Bingaman 

United States Senate 

Washington, DC 20510 

Dear Senator Bingaman: 

JUL 5 2012 

1200 New Jersey Ave., S.E. 

Washington, DC 20590 

Thank you for your letter supporting the proposal submitted by Los Alamos County for a grant 

under the U.S. Department of Transportation's Small Community Air Service Development 

Program. 

The Small Community Program was established to help smaller communities address air service 

deficiencies, particularly issues related to high airfares or insufficient service. Under the statute, 

the Department may make a maximum of 40 grant awards each year, although no more than 4 

awards may be to communities in the same State. In order to provide communities with latitude 

in developing solutions to their air service deficiencies, the statute provides flexibility in the 

types of projects that can be funded. 

On May 15, the Department issued an order requesting that communities interested in receiving a 

grant this year file their applications by .Tunc 11. As these grant requests are pending before the 

Department, I cannot comment on the merits or any particular proposal. I assure you that the 

Department will give full and fair consideration to all proposals that have been properly filed. 

As is our normal practice, I am placing a copy of your letter and this response in Docket 

DOT-OST-2012-0069 as a contact outside the record of this matter. I appreciate your interest in 

this program. 

Sincerely yours, 

Aloha Ley 

Associate Director. Small Community 

Air Service Development Program 
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Ms. Aloha Ley 

Associate Director 

Small Community Programs 

US Department ofTran~-portation 

1200 New Jersey A venue SE 

- Washington, DC 20590 

Dear Ms. Ley: 

June 8, 2012 

I am writing in support of Los Alamos County's application for a grant from the Small 

. Community Air Service Development Program to secure replacement air service for their 

community. 

For a number of years the County has worked to return scheduled air service to Los 

Alamos Airport The County has been without service since 1996 and during that time air 

travelers have driven 2 hours to Albuquerque's Sunport to catch flights. 

The staff of Los Alamos National Laboratory is quite dependent on out nation's air 

transportation system. With over 20.000 Laboratory passengers driving to Albuquerque each 

year to board aircraft at the Sunport ~- not to mention the many citizens and business travelers 

that make this same drive ww it is apparent that an easier, more convenient way to get to 

Albuquerque would work to everyone's advantage. 

'lbe Small Community Air Service Development Program was developed to suppOrt just 

this sort of endeavor. Simply stated, its charge is to assist small communities like los Alamos 

secure or enhance their commercial air service by helping overcome the financial burden 

associated with initiating new service. l respectfully request your careful consideration of the 

SCASDP application from Los Alamos County. 

Sincerely, .... 

Jeff Bingaman 

United States Senator 

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