By Harry Glenn
Soon after convening in 2016, Congress received a loud, 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.
Senate hearing
The Postmaster General, Megan Brennan, the Acting Chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission, Robert Taub, and the Inspector General for the U.S. Postal Service, David Williams, all agreed during a hearing on January 21st that the time is well past for Congress to act. Driving the call to action is the expiration of a temporary 4.3 percent “exigent rate” surcharge on April 1 which will cost the postal service $1.5 billion in revenue the remainder of this year, and $2.1 billion in 2017. The increase was approved by the Postal Rate Commission in 2013 and took effect on January 26, 2014. Many of the eight witnesses who testified called upon Congress to enact legislation to make the “exigent rate” increase permanent to protect the service’s financial position.
The hearing by the Senate Homeland Security Committee was called in part to try and find areas of agreement that could be included in postal reform legislation. In addition to protecting the rate increase, other items of discussion included reforming the prefunding requirement for the postal retiree health benefits, a $5.7 billion per year payment that the Postal Service has defaulted on the past four years. Other areas of discussion to help the Postal Service save money or generate additional income included requiring eligible postal retirees to participate in Medicare, encouraging the Postal Service to develop innovative new services to increase business and make better use of their facilities, and more clearly define the requirements to provide universal postal service.
While the Committee did not take action on any specific legislation, several comprehensive postal reform bills were discussed and there was general agreement that bipartisan efforts must continue to find common ground to modernize the Postal Service and correct its financial situation, while at the same time protecting services to small and rural communities.
In the House
Your President, Morgan Wolaver, Vice President, Gary Phillips, and Director of Operations, Mark Karolczyk, all attended the hearing and spent the rest of the day on the House side of Congress meeting with key staff overseeing the Postal Service. The message on the House side was encouraging as bipartisan meetings continue on a regular basis to identify areas of agreement and to narrow the areas of disagreement on an overarching postal reform bill. While there is no timetable in the House or Senate to draft a bill, time is short as there are fewer legislative days this year due to the national elections.
Other Congressional action
Congress wrapped of legislative activity last December with an Omnibus Appropriations Bill that once again included a provision to prevent the Postal Service from closing any small and rural post offices for the duration of Fiscal Year 2016. This is consistent with language the House and Senate have included in similar legislation the past two years.
House Resolution 501
Finally, Nevada Congressman Mark Amodei, who addressed the AUSPL national conference last May, has introduced in the House H.Res. 501, which expresses the sense of the of House of Representatives that the United States postal facility network is an asset of significant value and the United States Postal Service should take appropriate measures to maintain, modernize and fully utilize the existing post office network for economic growth.
This is an important bipartisan legislative measure as it drives home the message to members of the House and Senate who will draft postal reform legislation about the need to protect the postal network. In particular, these are the facilities our members lease to the Postal Service, which are so critical to providing services to small and rural communities.
In order to reinforce this point, we need every AUSPL member to call, write, or e-mail their member of Congress to urge them to cosponsor this legislation. Not only can you contact your personal member of Congress, but also those who represent districts where you own postal facilities. You can find your members of Congress at http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/. All you need is the zip code where you are registered to vote or for your postal facility. Please share any correspondence with members of Congress you send or receive with Sandra Lindsay at sandra@auspl.com so she can help track our progress. The more cosponsors we can persuade to cosponsor this resolution means the more attention that will be paid to leased facilities in any postal reform legislation.