By Harry Glenn
Soon after convening in 2016, Congress received a loud a clear message from the U.S. Postal Service and the postal community – postal reform legislation is urgently needed to prevent a further serious deterioration of its financial position.
By Harry Glenn
The House Appropriations Committee approved legislation June 17th that would prevent the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) from consolidating or closing small and rural post offices.
The provision is included in the Fiscal Year 2017 Financial Services Appropriations Bill, the legislation that includes funding and oversight for USPS. The full House will consider the legislation later this year.
This provision was included in similar legislation last year and was signed into law last December. Because it is a part of an annual appropriations bill, it must be approved by Congress one year at a time.
by Harry Glenn
As predicted at the May conference, the House and Senate will make another attempt at moving postal reform and modernization legislation through Congress as early as this summer. This makes it more important than ever that each AUSPL member makes contact with his or her member of Congress to share the association’s interest in this matter.
AUSPL President Morgan Wolaver, Board Member Gary Phillips and Director of Operations Mark Karolczyk visited Capitol Hill May 20 and 21 to meet with key members of Congress and legislative staff who will be drafting postal legislation.
By Harry Glenn
The 113th Congress closed with a flurry of activity last month and members of your AUSPL board and staff were on the ground in our nation’s Capital to monitor legislative activity and meet the key players on postal reform legislation in the upcoming 114th Congress.
President of the Board Morgan Wolaver, Vice President Gary Phillips, and Director of Operations Mark Karolczyk were pleased to learn while they were there that the final omnibus appropriations bill to keep the federal government open and running through September 30, 2015 included a legislative provision stating, “That none of the funds provided in this Act shall be used to consolidate or close small rural and other small post offices.” The legislation also included a provision requiring the postal service to maintain six-day mail delivery throughout the same time period.
As we enter the October/November election phase of this year, Members of Congress have returned to their home districts to campaign for reelection. Prior to leaving Capitol Hill, they passed a stopgap spending measure to fund the government until they return after the election. Some additional items were included in the funding measure, although the measure avoids controversial provisions such as addressing the U.S. Postal Service’s plan to close 82 facilities nationwide in 2015.
There remains some possibility of postal reform passing in the lame duck session of Congress, after the elections. However, that is increasingly unlikely . . .
As we enter the October/November election phase of this year, Members of Congress have returned to their home districts to campaign for reelection. Prior to leaving Capitol Hill, they passed a stopgap spending measure to fund the government until they return after the election. Some additional items were included in the funding measure, although the measure avoids controversial provisions such as addressing the U.S. Postal Service’s plan to close 82 facilities nationwide in 2015.
There remains some possibility of postal reform passing in the lame duck session of Congress, after the elections. However, that is increasingly unlikely . . .
WHERE DID WE START? We started this journey for postal reform in 2011 and have exceeded all of the expectations. When we first began we were faced with a Congress comprised of members that had no idea the postal leasing program even existed. With the help and hard work of the board we have changed…
As we enter the spring and prepare for election season to ramp-up, now is “do or die” time for postal reform in the 113th Congress. As we know from our previous endeavors, if Congress fails to act before the 114th Congress is sworn in this January, the process of postal reform will start over in both Chambers.
That being said, we are beginning to see some movement in the House of Representatives with staff briefing leadership and members on the various provisions and plans in the Postal Reform Act.
Although comprehensive postal reform has yet to move forward, leaders in the House and Senate chose to include some restrictions on the Postal Service in the recently passed “omnibus” spending bill that will fund the government through September of 2014.
The $1.1T (yes, that’s a T for Trillion!) federal spending bill ended up 1,582 pages long and contained two policy restrictions on the USPS. Page 541 of the bill bars the USPS from discontinuing Saturday delivery as well as restricting the closure of rural post offices.
The AUSPL Board of Directors recently joined AUSPL lobbyists Alan Suskey and David Jolly in Washington, DC, to meet with leaders in the House and Senate on postal reform. It was an “exciting” time in DC to say the least. Our trip happened to coincide with the end of the fiscal year and the government…