WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Both the House and Senate passed
    historic postal reform legislation in the final hours of the 109th Congress
    after key negotiators Sens. Susan Collins, R-ME, and Tom Carper, D-DE,
    and Reps. Tom Davis, R-VA, and Henry A. Waxman, D-CA brokered an
    agreement that will modernize the United States Postal Service and make it
    viable for the 21st century. The legislation, the first major overhaul of
    the USPS since 1970, will help stabilize mail volume and stamp prices.
     
    "The U.S. Postal Service is the lynchpin of a $900 billion mailing
    industry, providing nine million jobs nationwide in fields as diverse as
    direct mailing, printing, catalog companies, paper manufacturing, and
    financial services. But under its current business model, which has not
    been updated in decades, the financial future of the Postal Service is not
    viable," said Senator Collins. "The only way to avoid what the Government
    Accountability Office refers to as a 'death spiral' of excessive and
    unpredictable rate increases which lead to further reductions in mail
    volume is through the comprehensive reform that we accomplished here
    today."
     
    "This legislation will help us avoid disastrous future postal rate
    hikes and put the Postal Service on firm financial footing for the 21st
    century," said Senator Carper. "The bill would give the Postal Service the
    tools it needs to survive at a time when more and more people communicate
    and do business through faxes, email and electronic bill-pay rather than
    hard-copy mail. My thanks to Senator Collins and Congressmen Davis and
    Waxman for coming together to craft this compromise. The legislation will
    go a long way toward making sure the Postal Service has the flexibility it
    needs to compete in the new economy."
     
    This is the culmination of more than a decade of hard work and study,
    not to mention a great deal of bipartisan negotiation and cooperation,"
    Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis said. "The landmark
    legislation solves the structural, legal, and financial constraints that
    have brought the Postal Service to the brink of utter breakdown. This
    compromise will reverse the 'death spiral' at the Postal Service and bring
    it into the 21st century. It's a huge win for everyone who uses stamps."
     
    "My colleagues and I have been working for nearly a decade to reach a
    bipartisan, bicameral compromise on postal reform legislation," said Rep.
    Waxman. "This is a historic accomplishment and will help one of the most
    revered institutions in America survive and prosper in the electronic age."
     
    The Postal Service is in a period of transition. When it was created in
    1971, nobody had access to fax machines, cell phones, pagers and email.
    After nearly three decades of success, these new communications
    technologies have caught up with the agency. In recent years, the volume of
    First Class mail has steadily decreased. At the same time, more than 1
    million new addresses are added to delivery routes each year. The result:
    Delivery costs have increased at the same time that revenues are being
    threatened.
     
    The legislation would force the Postal Service to concentrate on what
    it does best processing and delivering mail to all Americans. The bill,
    entitled the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, would dramatically
    rethink the way the Postal Service prices its products by giving it the
    same ability any other business has to change prices whenever it needs to
    do so. But to protect businesses and mailers from sudden and dramatic price
    hikes, the legislation would ensure that price increases be kept below an
    inflation- based ceiling.
     
    In addition, the bill would give the Postal Service the freedom to
    introduce new, innovative products or tailor existing products to meet
    customers' needs, which should help attract new business and increase
    revenues. The bill would also shore up the Postal Service's finances by
    repealing a provision in current law that makes the Postal Service the only
    agency in the federal government responsible for its employees' military
    pension benefits, returning this obligation to the U.S. Treasury. Another
    provision will permanently correct the Postal Service's flawed pension
    formula, a formula that was leading to significant overpayments and
    contributing to higher rates. These provisions will free up billions of
    dollars, giving the Postal Service the ability to begin paying down its
    debts.
     
    Lawmakers also were able to strike a deal on the level of authority
    given to the newly-created Postal Regulatory Commission. The bill maintains
    language included in both the House and Senate versions giving the
    Commission tools, such as subpoena power, to ensure that the Postal Service
    is in compliance with the law and that the interests of the mailing public
    are protected. It now contains new language giving the Commission the
    power, as an expert regulatory body, to monitor the new rate system in
    future years and make whatever changes are necessary to ensure that it
    continues to meet postal customers' needs. At the same time, the bill would
    add an Inspector General of the Postal Regulatory Commission to monitor the
    regulator in the use of its expanded powers.

     

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