National Association of Postal Supervisors
Legislative and Regulatory Update -- May 9, 2008


In this Issue:

NAPS President Keating Calls for Aggressive Efforts to Increase USPS Revenues

NAPS President Ted Keating, in Congressional testimony at a House hearing on Thursday, called for aggressive efforts to provide the Postal Service with additional revenues to offset its sagging financial health.  Keating's testimony came a day after the Postal Service announced that it had ended the second quarter with a net loss of $707 million, triggered by a continued decline in mail volume reflective of a softening economy.

"[T]he preservation of financial strength is the paramount challenge to the future of the Postal Service," Keating told the House Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service, and the District of Columbia.  "The triple-threat of declining mail volume, increased service demands, and a weakening economy have not provided a healthy base for the launch of the postal reform law over the past year.  Weakened economic conditions have disproportionately affected postal revenues.  The financial credit and housing industries -- key users of the mail -- have slackened in their mail usage, and retailers have reduced their mailings of catalogs and advertising mail." 

Keating's testimony came during a nearly four-hour hearing on "the economics of universal mail post-PAEA" by the House subcommittee that oversees the U.S. Postal Service, chaired by Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL).  "PAEA" refers to the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, the law Congress passed in late 2005 to modernize the Postal Service and provide more business-like flexibility to its operations, products and pricing.

Given the mounting financial pressures facing the postal system, NAPS President Keating called for the Postal Service to explore "every opportunity" to pursue additional revenue through new products and services.  "The Postal Service needs to become more entrepreneurial, accountable and transparent in the conduct of its business operations," Keating said.  This includes "not only the introduction of new and innovative mail products, but also greater accessibility to commercial services within the network of more than 30,000 post offices."   As an example, Keating pointed to the potential for greater commercial use of post office lobbies, providing leasing to bank ATM services and other commercial products.  "The availability of ATM service in small post offices in rural areas would be well-received in many communities.  Similarly, the last mile of USPS delivery service provides untested opportunities for expanded courier and delivery services by USPS carriers, " he said.

Keating also called upon Congress to assure that the Postal Service receives every dollar to which it is entitled.  "Too often Congress has sought to avoid payment of the annual $29 million "revenue forgone" payment to the Postal Service through budget chicanery" Keating noted.  "The revenue forgone payment should never be held hostage and should be automatically funded by Congress every year in recognition of the prior pledge Congress has made."

Keating additionally pointed to the need for Congressional reversal of the Administration's disapproval of the Postal Service's request for payment of the Medicare Part D prescription drug subsidy, projected to save postal customers at least $250 million annually.  "While private sector competitors of the Postal Service may qualify for subsidies that offset the cost of prescription drug coverage they provide to their retirees, the Postal Service has been barred from receipt of the subsidy by the Office of Personnel Management," Keating pointed out.  "We trust that the next Administration will take a more enlightened attitude toward the payment of the prescription drug subsidy to the Postal Service, recognizing the need to assure a level playing field."


Public Review of PRC Consultant's Report on Universal Service Essential, NAPS Says

NAPS President Ted Keating at Thursday's House postal oversight hearing criticized the process that the Postal Regulatory Commission plans to use in drafting its report to the President and the Congress on the universal service obligation and the mailbox monopoly.  Keating said the PRC risks undermining the validity of its study without adequate public review and comment on a consultant's preliminary report on which the Commission is likely to largely rely. 

The PRC's scheme for the consultant's drafting of the report envisions the PRC's potential adoption of much of the consultant's draft report as the final report of the PRC, Keating noted, without revelation of the consultant's work to the public or the opportunity for public comment upon the report. 

The PRC's study of the universal service obligation could involve examination of a number of controversial proposals that have surfaced in the past, including the termination of unprofitable delivery routes, the closing of small post offices, abandonment of the Alaska air subsidy, the realignment of the processing and distribution network, reduction in the numbers of stops in the delivery network, cutbacks in the number of delivery days and other measures.  "Given the seriousness of these measures, we believe the PRC's failure to provide for public comment on the consultant's report presents a serious, perhaps fatal, flaw in its study process," Keating told the House panel.

The Postal Regulatory Commission is required by the 2005 postal reform law to report to the President and Congress on "universal postal service and the postal monopoly in the United States ... including the monopoly on the delivery of mail and on access to mailboxes."  The PRC has voluntarily contracted with a consultant team from George Mason University to assist the Commission in the research and drafting of the report, which it must send to the President and Congress by mid-December. 

Though the PRC has announced that it plans to hold three public hearings later this month and in June for the receipt of input, NAPS President Keating called these efforts "premature" and suggested that "[c]onstructive input by the general public to the PRC will be better generated after the findings and recommendations of the consultant's report are revealed and studied."

At Thursday's hearing, Myke Reid, Legislative Director of the American Postal Workers Union, also criticized the potential bias of the PRC contractor team itself, noting that "the PRC has selected as its contractors people who are on record as favoring privatization and as believiing that the postal monopoly has been widely criticized."


NAPS Meetings on the Hill Yield Congressional Cosponsorships

Seventy-six House and Senate lawmakers have signed-on as cosponsors of seven NAPS-supported bills since the NAPS Legislative Conference and Training Seminar in Washington in one month ago.  The additional cosponsorships are largely the result of the meetings and follow-ups by NAPS delegations with House Members and and Senators since the time of the LTS in early April. 

"The added support that we have secured, on top of the hundreds of cosponsors who already have signed-on, demonstrates the large body of support on the Hill for our nation's postal supervisors and the strength of our legislative agenda," NAPS Vice President Louis Atkins said.

Here are the seven bills and the additonal cosponsors that have been added in the past month.  Click on the bills for more information about each of them, including total cosponsorships.

HR 281 – Universal Right to Vote by Mail Act

Rep Kildee, Dale E. [MI-5] - 4/1/2008
Rep Hinojosa, Ruben [TX-15] - 4/1/2008
Rep Peterson, Collin C. [MN-7] - 4/8/2008
Rep Boswell, Leonard L. [IA-3] - 4/8/2008
Rep Watson, Diane E. [CA-33] - 4/8/2008
Rep Inslee, Jay [WA-1] - 4/8/2008
Rep Cardoza, Dennis A. [CA-18] - 4/8/2008

HR 1667 – Vote by Mail Act

Rep Jackson-Lee, Sheila [TX-18] - 4/1/2008
Rep Bishop, Timothy H. [NY-1] - 4/8/2008
Rep Watson, Diane E. [CA-33] - 4/8/2008
Rep Israel, Steve [NY-2] - 4/17/2008
Rep McCarthy, Carolyn [NY-4] - 4/30/2008


S 979 – Vote by Mail Act

Sen Carper, Thomas R. [DE] - 4/21/2008

HR 5573 – Lump-Sum Payment to FERS-Covered Employees for Unused Sick Leave

Rep Watson, Diane E. [CA-33] - 4/8/2008
Rep Van Hollen, Chris [MD-8] - 4/8/2008
Rep Jackson-Lee, Sheila [TX-18] - 4/8/2008
Rep Wexler, Robert [FL-19] - 4/8/2008
Rep Filner, Bob [CA-51] - 4/8/2008
Rep Woolsey, Lynn C. [CA-6] - 4/8/2008
Rep Frank, Barney [MA-4] - 4/8/2008
Rep Jones, Stephanie Tubbs [OH-11] - 4/8/2008
Rep Allen, Thomas H. [ME-1] - 4/8/2008
Rep Hinojosa, Ruben [TX-15] - 4/8/2008
Rep McGovern, James P. [MA-3] - 4/8/2008
Rep Sires, Albio [NJ-13] - 4/8/2008
Rep Bishop, Timothy H. [NY-1] - 4/8/2008
Rep Hare, Phil [IL-17] - 4/8/2008
Rep Baldwin, Tammy [WI-2] - 4/8/2008
Rep Ellison, Keith [MN-5] - 4/8/2008
Rep Inslee, Jay [WA-1] - 4/8/2008
Rep Ellsworth, Brad [IN-8] - 4/9/2008
Rep Petri, Thomas E. [WI-6] - 4/9/2008
Rep Meeks, Gregory W. [NY-6] - 4/9/2008
Rep Scott, Robert C. "Bobby" [VA-3] - 4/24/2008
Rep Grijalva, Raul M. [AZ-7] - 4/24/2008
Rep Upton, Fred [MI-6] - 4/24/2008
Rep English, Phil [PA-3] - 4/29/2008
Rep Michaud, Michael H. [ME-2] - 4/29/2008
Rep Diaz-Balart, Lincoln [FL-21] - 4/30/2008
Rep Diaz-Balart, Mario [FL-25] - 4/30/2008
Rep Green, Al [TX-9] - 4/30/2008
Rep Price, David E. [NC-4] - 4/30/2008
Rep Berkley, Shelley [NV-1] - 5/1/2008
Rep Young, C.W. Bill [FL-10] - 5/1/2008
Rep Boucher, Rick [VA-9] - 5/7/2008
Rep Marshall, Jim [GA-8] - 5/7/2008
Rep Bordallo, Madeleine Z. [GU] - 5/7/2008<> 


S. 773 – Premium Conversion for FEHBP Premiums by Federal/Postal Retirees<>

Sen Sanders, Bernard [VT] - 4/3/2008
Sen Specter, Arlen [PA] - 4/22/2008

 

H.R. 1110 – Premium Conversion for FEHBP Premiums by Federal/Postal Retirees

Rep Watson, Diane E. [CA-33] - 4/2/2008
Rep Brown, Henry E., Jr. [SC-1] - 4/2/2008
Rep Shea-Porter, Carol [NH-1] - 4/8/2008
Rep Kennedy, Patrick J. [RI-1] - 4/9/2008
Rep Ros-Lehtinen, Ileana [FL-18] - 4/14/2008
Rep Hare, Phil [IL-17] - 4/16/2008
Rep Inslee, Jay [WA-1] - 4/17/2008
Rep Larson, John B. [CT-1] - 4/29/2008
Rep Carson, Andre [IN-7] - 4/29/2008
Rep Tiahrt, Todd [KS-4] - 4/29/2008
Rep Sutton, Betty [OH-13] - 4/29/2008
Rep Sanchez, Linda T. [CA-39] - 4/29/2008
Rep Bachmann, Michele [MN-6] - 4/29/2008


HR 728 – Veterans Reassignment Protection Act

Rep Hinojosa, Ruben [TX-15] - 4/2/2008
Rep Boswell, Leonard L. [IA-3] - 4/2/2008
Rep Jackson-Lee, Sheila [TX-18] - 4/2/2008
Rep Doolittle, John T. [CA-4] - 4/2/2008
Rep Jones, Stephanie Tubbs [OH-11] - 4/2/2008
Rep Bishop, Timothy H. [NY-1] - 4/3/2008
Rep Loebsack, David [IA-2] - 4/3/2008
Rep Watson, Diane E. [CA-33] - 4/3/2008
Rep Davis, Susan A. [CA-53] - 4/3/2008
Rep Van Hollen, Chris [MD-8] - 4/8/2008
Rep Mica, John L. [FL-7] - 4/8/2008
Rep Slaughter, Louise McIntosh [NY-28] - 4/14/2008
Rep Altmire, Jason [PA-4] - 4/15/2008
Rep Higgins, Brian [NY-27] - 4/22/2008
Rep Shays, Christopher [CT-4] - 4/29/2008


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Bruce Moyer
Legislative Counsel to the National Association of Postal Supervisors