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This is the year it's finally supposed to happen — Congress is going to get serious about postal reform and pass meaningful legislation.
But what will the House and Senate propose, and what will they agree on? And how will the U.S. Postal Service, the mailing industry and postal labor respond to these recommendations?
I can't answer for the USPS or labor, but I do know that our industry can't afford to stand idly by while Congress mulls over its future.
There's one thing we know for sure: If Congress fails to pass substantive reform before 2006, the industry will have to face its worst-ever postal rate increase nightmare.
In short, this year mailers should expect to get actively involved in an industrywide effort to convince Congress to act before the postal rate hammer falls. But what should you ask your member of Congress to do?
Above all, make sure your representatives and senators know precisely what you believe must be in any legislative package to produce significant reform. Over the past several months, the Association for Postal Commerce has been grappling with this issue, and we've whittled down the infinities of our wish list to eight essential principles. We call them the “Freedoms” — after the acronym created from the first letter of the first word of each element on the list.
For reform to work, we believe that at a minimum any proposal must be designed to:
Fix CSRS (Civil Service Retirement System) and military benefits. Require bottom-up costing. Enable pricing flexibility. Expedite the administrative process. Defend universal postal services. Optimize private sector management authority, incentives and pay comparability. Maintain the mailbox monopoly. Strengthen regulatory oversight and postal reporting transparency.
Few words, perhaps, but the details that can flesh them out are many. Unfortunately, it's impossible to elaborate on them here for lack of space.
But since it's so important to understand all these details, some helpful information is available to you. Just drop an e-mail to info@postcom.org. I'll make sure you get it free.
What more could you ask?
GENE A. DEL POLITO is president of the Association for Postal Commerce (PostCom) in Arlington, VA.
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