It’s Unanimous: Senate Passes Postal Reform Bill Feb 9, 2006 5:17 PM
, By John Fischer
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On Feb. 9 the Senate voted to pass postal reform bill S.662. Passed by “unanimous consent”--not a unanimous vote but instead a voting methodology that the Senate often uses that recognizes each senator’s willingness to allow the bill to go to conference—the bill is just another step on the long road to reform.
But it’s an important step – as are the steps to come, says Bob McLean, executive director of the Arlington, VA-based Mailers Council. “Mailers out there must participate in these upcoming debates,” McLean says, referring to the required conference committee where S.662 and its sister bill, H.R.22, will be reevaluated as one. “We need grassroots pressure from mailers that will encourage Congress not only to convene quickly but to ultimately produce a decision.”
When the conference committee will convene is still anyone’s guess. Congress began debating a highly contentious asbestos bill this past Monday, and McLean is concerned that it will delay Congress’s ability to convene a committee for the reform bills. But Gene Del Polito, president of the Arlington, VA-based Association for Postal Commerce, believes that it could be as early next month, which could affect the Postal Service’s next rate case.
The USPS is expected to file for another rate case by midyear. Del Polito, however, says the agency would be wise to hold off filing the case until there is a clearer idea of what changes, if anything, the proposed legislation would bring. “It’s all a matter of when you want to start the 12-month clock,” he says, referring to the minimum amount of time it takes for a rate proposal to be considered. “The new rules are to be classified by the new Postal Rate Commission. Since those rules are not yet written, if they were to go forward with the rate case they have now, they’d never get the chance to see what options they might have had under the new system.”
Another factor to consider is the White House’s objective to keep things “budget neutral.” The House and Senate reform bills both call for shifting liability for military service time of postal employees' retirement payments from the USPS to the U.S. Treasury and for eliminating an escrow account. The Bush administration, however, opposes the provision because it would add to the budget deficit.
“It’s important to remember that budget-neutral postal legislation is a White House objective--not a mandate,” says Ben Cooper, president of the lobbying group Committee for a 21st Century Postal Service. “But I suspect an effort to adjust the bill in terms of overall budget concerns will be considered.”
It also remains to be seen how the Postal Service itself will factor in the ongoing legislative process--if at all. With its Jan. 24 letter to the Senate opposing S.662 (see “USPS ‘Officially’ Opposes Senate Reform Bill--but Does That Matter?”), Cooper says, “they all but closed the door to the negotiating room and locked the door behind them.”
Mailers, though, need to be proactive, McLean says. “Some issues get to conference committee and are never heard from again,” he warns. “If everyone just sits back and waits, then postal reform dies…it’s that simple.”
