House Panel To Vote On Postal Reform Bill Today

In an unusual parliamentary procedure, the House Government Reform Committee is scheduled to vote on a postal reform bill Thursday morning that may or may not be introduced beforehand.

With the vote scheduled for 10 a.m., there has been no indication from either Committee Chairman Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN), or Rep. John McHugh (R-NY) as to just when the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act will be introduced. Members of the committee have been reviewing a draft of the proposal, developed by McHugh and Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Danny Davis (D-IL).

Although it is somewhat unusual for a committee to schedule a markup or vote on a bill before it is introduced, it is acceptable, according to Daniel Moll, the panel’s deputy staff director.

“The committee is under no obligation to drop (introduce) a bill before the markup,” he said, adding that it “can markup a blank bill.”

Gene Del Polito, Association for Postal Commerce president, predicted that even if the bill is voted out of committee and sent to the full house “it will sit there and die because enthusiasm for postal reform is so cool. I know of no one who is actively lobbying for its passage.”

At the same time Neal Denton, Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers executive director, said if the bill does die either in committee or with the expiration of the 107th Congress in January, “it should serve as a great starting point for the 108th Congress.”

Meantime Burton, anticipating that a majority of the committee will approve the measure, sent letters to every member of Congress asking them to support postal reform legislation.

In his letter, headlined, “If You Are A Free Market Conservative, Postal Reform Is For You,” Burton pointed out that the postal reform bill “is based on the key principle that [its] participation in competitive markets must be, to the maximum extent possible, on the same terms and conditions as faced by its private sector competitors.”

He explained that passage of the bill would subject the USPS to antitrust laws and the unfair or deceptive trade practices of the Federal Trade commission; bar the USPS from providing non-postal products and services; require the USPS to pay income taxes on its competitive products and services; and increase the authority of the Postal Rate Commission, renamed Postal Regulatory Commission, over the USPS.

And, in a letter to committee members urging their support for the bill, Burton noted that the “mission of the USPS is being challenged by a variety of factors including decreasing volume, insufficient revenue, mounting debts and electronic communication such as Internet advertising, electronic bill payments, e-mails and faxes.” The bill has been endorsed by the postal service’s Board of Governors.

With mail volume expected to drop by 6% this year, he noted that the USPS which lost $1.68 billion last year, anticipates deficit of $1.35 billion this fiscal year, and that the USPS, with liabilities of nearly $100 billion, is fast approaching its borrowing limit with the U.S. Treasury Department.