WASHINGTON – An amendment to a spending bill passed by the Senate on Thursday includes a provision co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine to add $17 million to a fund that helps preserve rural airports.

The additional funds were included in the Essential Air Fund in an amendment to a $141 billion bill to fund transportation, housing, Treasury Department, and other programs in the budget year that began this month. The bill passed in the Senate 93-1 Thursday.

The Essential Air Service program was created to preserve aviation service to small communities that were in danger of losing that service when Congress deregulated the airlines in 1978.

Maine currently has four airports in the EAS program: Augusta State Airport, Knox County Regional at Rockland/Owls Head, Hancock County Bar Harbor Airport at Trenton, and Northern Maine Regional Airport at Presque Isle.

“Maine is the fifth-largest Essential Air Service state, with four of our airports receiving support from the program,” Snowe said in a prepared statement. “It is crucial that we support rural states that rely on their local airports to remain connected to the rest of the country.”

House and Senate negotiators still have to work out differences between their versions of the spending bill, and further votes will be required.