Did Airport Grants Sway Stupak's Healthcare Vote? No Way.

(MoneyWatch)  Quick, what does the new healthcare bill have to do with airports? Absolutely nothing -- though the Republican party appears want to convince the public that they're intricately tied together through an explosive quid pro quo scandal.The charge is so incredibly wrong that I had to comment in order to clear things up.

Something was posted on the National Republic Congressional Committee website stating that Rep Bart Stupak D-MI traded his healthcare vote in order to get about $725,000 in grants for three small airports in his home state. This is absurd.

It's true that three airports in Stupak's district received federal grants, and he announced it on March 19. But guess what? These are routine grants under the federal Airport Improvement Program. The Airport Improvement Program "provides grants to public agencies -- and, in some cases, to private owners and entities -- for the planning and development of public-use airports that are included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS)."

The three airports, Alpena County, Delta County, and Chippewa County, are in the NPIAS as are 92 other airports in Michigan alone. There are plenty of tiny airports scattered throughout that list. And while the number of enplaned passengers at the airports that received funds is small, it's still far more than many other airports on that list. Most aren't commercial airports at all.

But were these airports singled out to get funds in order to sway Rep Stupak? I just can't fathom that. In fact, these were just three of more than 300 airports that have received grants between October 1, 2009 and March 15, 2010 (.xls). Were all the other airports that received grants huge? Hah. How about Foley Municipal in Alabama? They received $250,000 for their zero passenger enplanements. Yup, it's a general aviation airport only. There are plenty more like this.

The list goes on and on, and there is absolutely nothing out of the ordinary here. So why would Rep Stupak bother putting a release about it? Because it's good for his community, and he would love to take credit if it can help his political campaign in the fall. That's how politics works.

But these allegations seem to be shockingly amateurish and not in any way grounded in airport-planning reality.

[Photo via Rep Stupak Website]