A new version of the Postal Modernization Act omits the controversial private law corporation provision in an effort to move the measure forward before the expiration of Congress in January.
The provision authorizes the United States Postal Service to create and operate a private corporation to oversee its products and services that would compete with private industry. The version will be introduced next week when Congress returns from the Easter recess.
Strong opposition to that provision from United Parcel Service, Atlanta, and FedEx, Memphis, TN, has resulted in the bill being stalled in the House Government Reform Committee.
“If HR22 fails to be enacted by the end of the current legislation session,” said Association for Postal Commerce president Gene A. Del Polito, “there is a greater likelihood that the kind of [postal] reform that would be considered by a future Congress will be considerably more radical and probably more contentious.”
House postal subcommittee chairman Rep. John McHugh (R-NY), made the disclosure Tuesday at a closed-door meeting that included more than 30 individuals representing the direct marketing and publishing industries, the U.S. Postal Service, postal unions and other interested parties.
McHugh also disclosed several other changes to the legislation, chief among them a broadening of a provision permitting the USPS to negotiate long-term service contracts with high-volume mailers, including direct marketers, major mailers, magazines and newspapers.
