NAPS President Keating’s Statement on Postal Reform
The Postal Service’s motive to kill postal reform, which has been increasingly apparent for months, became patently obvious this week. The USPS strategy: score a quick KO on postal reform by suggesting that the Senate’s postal reform bill – poised for approval any time now – will cause postal rates to rise by at least twenty cents and blow the roof off.
The Postal Service’s clever scheme, though, didn’t quite work out. Instead of bringing down the bill, USPS blew its cover, and those who were once its biggest allies on Capitol Hill were hit by USPS’ friendly fire.
Fast on the heels of Tuesday’s Governors’ letter opposing the Senate postal reform measure came two Postal Service press releases yesterday that collectively misrepresented and distorted the Senate postal reform measure and the bipartisan efforts of its champions, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), and Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE). Collins chairs the Senate committee that oversees the Postal Service and Carper is a leading Democrat on the committee.
The Postal Service’s WMD-like claim that stamp prices will go through the roof if postal reform occurs relies in large part upon the assumption that the postal CSRS military service obligation will remain with the Postal Service, and not return to the Treasury.
Yet, the Collins-Carper postal reform bill returns the military retirement payment obligation to the Treasury and saves the Postal Service billions of dollars. Both Collins and her House counterpart, Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA), have repeatedly opposed the Administration’s notion of continuing to stick USPS with the military retirement obligation.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that the Postal Service misfired, and misfired badly, in sending a 59-cent stamp aboard a heat-seeking missile aimed at the Senate. And unfortunately, the longer-term repercussions of that failed strike for the Postal Service may well last beyond postal reform. Lawmakers have memories as long as those proverbially possessed by elephants.
The House and Senate postal reform measures are not perfect, far from it. But, considering the long-term prognosis for the Postal Service, the need for a revamped postal statutory framework, and the enormous number of postal interests, the House and Senate postal measures are more than pretty darn good.
Once the Senate passes its bill, the ultimate test of postal reform will depend on what emerges from the bargaining and compromising that goes on behind closed doors in the conference to hammer out a final compromise between the House and Senate measures. After this week, the Postal Service’s capacity to be a trusted, credible player in those conference talks was hurt and hurt badly.
