National Association of Postal Supervisors
Legislative and Regulatory Update — July 7, 2008

In this Issue:

* Postal Service Seeks Early Out Authority as Restructuring Plans Emerge
* Congress Pursues Pared-Down Agenda
* House Panel Approves Five-Day Delivery Study
* NAPS to Urge Preservation of Universal Service

Postal Service Seeks Early Out Authority as Restructuring Plans Emerge

The Postal Service reportedly has requested Voluntary Early Retirement Authority (VERA) — more commonly known as “early out authority” — from the Office of Personnel Management, to seek permission to temporarily lower the age and service requirements to increase the number of USPS employees eligible for retirement.

Details on the VERA request are sketchy, but the pursuit of VERA is not surprising, given the need for the Postal Service to pursue significant cost-cutting moves to offset falling First-Class mail volume and rising costs, especially as soaring gas prices flatten USPS profits.

VERA theoretically encourages more voluntary attrition in order to permit an agency to pursue downsizing and restructuring with minimal workforce disruption. Acceptance rates by Postal employees to early-out offers in past restructuring efforts has been mixed at best.

According to unconfirmed reports, the Postal Service will target the next round of early-out offers to specific areas, but without the aid of buyouts or additional financial incentives to sweeten their appeal.

The Postal Service also recently announced plans to continue efforts to reorganize its processing and transportation networks, potentially leading to the elimination of significant numbers of jobs, starting at airport mail centers (AMCs), and continuing to mail processing plants and bulk mail centers. In a “network rationalization report” released to Congress on June 20, the Postal Service revealed few details on which facilities would be identified for further consolidation, indicating it planned to continue to asses the feasibility of of further restructuring through the use of “recently enhanced” AMP guidelines.

The USPS also announced in the report that it would continue to explore the potential of outsourcing the processing and transportation of mail in the Bulk Mail Center network through its Time-Definite Surface Network program. As Federal Times recently reported, the Postal Service also may outsource some BMC sorting functions to private companies, reportedly to free up space to install Flats Sequence System equipment.

The Postal Service indicated it could take up to two years to further solicit expert and public opinion to decide which plants and BMCs to realign.

Congress Pursues Pared-Down Agenda

Congress returns this week from its July 4th recess, with relatively little time remaining in the session to accomplish much besides passing housing foreclosure assistance and terrorism wiretapping bills — and continue to engage in partisan sniping as November’s elections draw closer.

A “pared-down summer agenda” is how the Washington Post described the work likely to get done in the abbreviated election-year calendar, with lawmakers departing tin August for a month-long break and the two parties’ presidential conventions , followed in September by posturing over FY 2009 budget issues, with adjournment in early October for the final campaign stretch.

That means that most, if not all of the issues promoted by NAPS — from voting by mail, to Social Security fairness (GPO/WEP), to premium conversion, to veterans reassignment protection, will likely be punted into 2009 and the 111th Congress.

House Panel Approves Five-Day Delivery Study

The House Appropriations Committee has approved an amendment requiring the Postal Service to study the merits of a five-day delivery system, both in terms of its cost-effectiveness and its impact on fuel consumption. The provision was added to the FY 2009 Financial Services and General Government appropriations measure, approved by the Committee on June 25. The bill, which includes nearly $112 million in funding for the Postal Service, now goes to the full House for approval; the Senate has not acted on its funding bill.

The five-day delivery study requirement was proposed by Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA), who in a statement said, “I”ve been trying to get the postal service to end Saturday delivery for years.” “It’s a perfect example of government waste that is driving up the price at the pump. I can’t think of the last time I got anything but a bill in the mail and, frankly, those can wait until Monday. Now my kids get all of their bills by email. What other way can the government immediately save 20.8 million galls of gas thereby reducing consumption and gas prices?”

Kingston, a conservative Congressman from southeastern Georgia who, during his 16 years in Congress, has crusaded for smaller government, estimated that the Postal Service would annually conserve nearly 21 million gallons of gasoline and save $85 million on fuel costs through five-day delivery.. “This is just one way to bring down the cost of fuel,” Kingston said. “While some oppose this idea, this study will at least give us hard numbers on which we can make an informed decision.”
The Congress has mandated that the Postal Service provide six-day delivery to all parts of the country since 1983, through a requirement inserted in annual appropriations measures. Even if Congress refrained from continuing the six-day-delivery requirement, and the USPS sought to move to five-day delivery, the Postal Regulatory Commission would still need to approve the change.

NAPS to Urge Preservation of Universal Service

NAPS President Ted Keating on Thursday will urge urge the Postal Regulatory Commission to lend its support to the preservation of the universal service obligation and the postal monopoly. Keating’s remarks will call upon the Commission to affirm the well-established principle that all Americans, no matter where they live, are entitled to secure, efficient and affordable postal service.

Mr. Keating will appear with the presidents of several other postal employee organizations before the Commission at a hearing at the PRC’s headquarters on Thursday morning, July 10. The hearing is the fourth of a series of hearings the PRC has held around the country, as it prepares its study on the universal service obligation and the postal monopoly. The report, due to Congress in mid-December, is required by the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act.

Bruce Moyer
NAPS Legislative Counsel

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