WASHINGTON — Efforts to preserve passenger air service in Northern New York stalled in the Senate, where a multiyear bill outlining aviation programs failed to overcome a Republican filibuster.

Supporters of the Essential Air Service program, which subsidizes flights to Watertown, Ogdensburg and Massena, had seen the bill as one way to fight the Bush administration's proposed cuts to the program.

With the FAA bill all but dead for this year, lawmakers will turn to other measures — especially annual must-pass spending bills — to preserve funding roughly where it has been in the past few years or to slightly increase it.

"This FAA reauthorization was a golden opportunity to give the EAS program some much-needed improvements that would have made this terrific program even better," Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement. "Unfortunately, our colleagues on the other side of the aisle have failed to see how absolutely crucial this program is to the more rural areas across our country that depend on it to not only provide affordable air service, but to fuel major economic growth."

The bill failed because of procedural disagreements between Democrats and Republicans, as well as a dispute over airline pensions.

The bill also aimed to improve customer service and revamp the air traffic control system.

With this week's collapse, Congress may simply extend aviation programs for an additional year, a measure that could also give EAS allies an avenue to block any cuts.

The EAS program subsidizes part of the cost of flights to small, rural airports, where passenger air service would not be cost effective otherwise. It has congressional friends in both parties but has repeatedly been targeted by Republican and Democratic administrations that consider it wasteful. Watertown, in particular, has been vulnerable due to its proximity to Syracuse Hancock International Airport.