At a meeting of the House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz told committee members that the Committee will make postal reform a top priority for the new 115th Session of Congress. Chairman Chaffetz authored HR 5714, a comprehensive postal reform bill introduced in the previous session of Congress. HR 5714 made it out of committee…
On January 22, 2017 the cost of mailing a one-ounce single-piece Stamped Letter will increase from 47¢ to 49¢, and the cost of mailing a one-ounce single-piece Metered Letter will decrease from 46.5¢ to 46¢. Additional ounces will remain at 21¢, and the cost of sending a Postcard will remain at 34¢. On October 12,…
Robert G. Taub and Mark Acton have been reappointed as Commissioners of the Postal Regulatory Commission. The Postal Regulatory Commission is an independent Federal agency that provides transparency and accountability of the U. S. Postal Service’s operations. The PRC is composed of five Commissioners appointed by the President with consent of the Senate, for a term…
Monday, December 19 was the busiest mailing day of 2016, when the USPS processed approximately 611 million cards, letters and packages. The following Thursday is expected to be the busiest delivery day of the year. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas the Postal Service estimates that it will process 16 billion items.
The Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 created the US Postal Service Board of Governors. The Governors on the Board fulfill the constitutional requirement that executive branch entities be run by presidential appointees. The US Postal Service Board of Governors is authorized to have seven Governors appointed by the President in addition to the Postmaster General…
Twenty-seven Senators from both sides of the aisle have joined together in writing a letter to Senator McConnell and Senator Reid the Majority and Minority Leaders of the Senate respectively, as well as Senator Johnson, Chairman and Senator Carper, Ranking Member of the Homeland Security Committee, which has jurisdiction over the US Postal Service. The letter…
On November 16, 2016, Senator Claire McCaskill was named the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. She will work with Republican Senator Ron Johnson who is Chairman of that committee. Senator McCaskill has been a long-time advocate for postal service in rural communities, and in 2016 sponsored a bill that outlines procedures…
On October 20, 2016 Sen. Heitkamp called on Postmaster General Megan Brennan to protect the mail service in Amidon and Halliday, North Dakota. The Halliday facility is being closed due to unsafe conditions found in the post office. Sen. Heitkamp is asking the US Postal Service to take two steps. First she asks that…
On September 28, 2016, Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) introduced Senate Bill 3452 (“S. 3452”), titled the “Post Office Discontinuance Accountability Act of 2016.” The Bill is co-sponsored by Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS), and has been referred to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. The Bill has been introduced late in the legislative session and will die if it is not passed into law by January 3, 2017. However, it can in such a case be re-introduced in the new Congress next year.
The objective of the Bill is to establish procedures governing “emergency suspensions” of Post Offices by the USPS. Under the Bill, emergency suspensions are defined to be:
[t]emporary discontinuance of a post office without following discontinuance procedures for the post office, because of (1) a natural disaster, (2) the early, sudden, or unexpected termination of a lease or rental agreement by the lessor when suitable alternate quarters are not immediately available in the same community, (3) lack of qualified personnel to operate the post office, (4) severe or irreparable damage to or destruction of, the post office when suitable alternate quarters are not immediately available in the community, (5) a challenge to the sanctity of the mail, or (6) a lack of adequate measures to safeguard the post office or its revenues. [Italics added.]
It is significant that S. 3452 does not define the term “emergency suspension” to include the expiration of a long term lease at the end of its term, as such an expiration can clearly be anticipated by both the USPS and the lessor. Because the USPS has in the past attempted to establish regulations which would allow it to treat normal lease expiration as an emergency suspension, AUSPL has long argued that the term should be limited to situations which are true “emergencies,” using the plain meaning of the word. S. 3452 would clarify that question in a meaningful way for postal lessors.
On October 12, 2016 the US Postal Service filed notice with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) of a price increase for letters. Rates would be raised from $.47 to $.49 for a 1 oz. letter. The price increase is scheduled to take effect on January 22, 2017. The price of additional ounces, letters to international…