Mailers are anxiously waiting to see what the President’s Postal Commission comes back with in July. One thing seems certain: Nobody wants the USPS to be broken up or replaced by outside services.
“We need a strong post office with universal service,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, who plans to conduct hearings on the commission’s findings this fall.
Collins added that commercial deliverers would find it “impracticable” to provide services to people in rural areas at the rates offered by the USPS. She made her remarks during the Direct Marketing Association’s Government Affairs conference in Washington, DC.
The senator also acknowledged that a “perfect” postal reform bill is unlikely, given the many opposing groups.
That theme was repeated later by Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA), chairman of the House Government Reform Committee. Congress will certainly hear from Federal Express, UPS, the mail carriers, the letter carriers and several other groups, he said.
What are the chances that the commission’s proposals will be enacted?
“We don’t know what the commission is going to say, or how serious the administration is going to be about tackling it,” Davis said. “If the president says, ‘I want this as part of my legacy,’ we’ll have a bill,’ Davis said.
He added that it will be almost impossible if the White House is not committed. “Congress is not eager to start closing post offices and annoying interest groups that are pretty friendly to everybody right now,” he said.
Davis argued that while rates should remain steady until 2006 (thanks to passage of the reducing the postal service’s overpayment on its pension contribution), several issues need to reopened.
One was the question of what the USPS will do with its surpluses after 2006. Another is the requirement that the USPS pick up its employees’ military retirement benefits.
“No other agency is responsible for paying the military retirement of its members,” Davis said. The billions of dollars at stake could wipe out the postal service’s debt, he added.
Collins agreed that postal finances have to be addressed. One Maine cataloger told her that the firm’s postage outlays now exceed printing and processing costs.
Collins, who sponsored the recent pension bill said, “It’s ironic
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