The Under-Appreciated Catalog
It’s amazing how some in Congress who allege to be pro-business can so misunderstand the needs of certain enterprises that may help keep their constituents clothed for one thing.
But that’s what seems to be happening with parts of H.R. 2309, the House version of this year’s postal reform bill. At least so far as some catalogers are concerned.
Part of the bill calls for increasing the rates on “underwater products” –mail categories that don’t bring in enough revenue to cover their mailing costs. Catalogs are such a category and the bill calls for raising their rates.
Why does this come up now?
A few weeks ago, the House leadership indicated that postal reform might be considered in this term—but there’s no guarantee it will.
If the House bill passes H.R. 2309 it would go into a House-Senate conference committee that would reconcile differences between H.R. 2309 and S. 1789 which passed in April. The bill would next go to President Obama for his signature.
Hamilton Davison, president of the American Catalog Marketers Assn. is trying to rouse organization members living in Republican Congressional districts to hassle their Congress people early and often enough to get them to pull that underwater provision from the bill.
The thinking is that since no Democrat is likely to vote for this bill it’s imperative to get as many GOPers on board as possible.
The issue of underwater products is not new. Last year, the Postal Regulatory Commission issued a report saying that costs for flats (catalogs) must be brought into line with other mail categories to help insure catalogers can get close to paying their own way. That led to fears that catalog rates could soar by as much as 22%. Meanwhile, the USPS said it wants to do everything it can to keep mailers mailing.
Whether it was from the U.S. Postal Service itself as in past years or from misguided or ill-informed lawmakers now catalogers always seem to get stiffed in terms of postage rates.
