Postmaster General Jack Potter on March 13 appeared before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Treasury, Postal Service, and General Government to request $1 billion from Congress. The amount—a far greater sum than President Bush’s prior request for $60 million–includes $29 million as a 10th payment in a series of 42 annual payments authorized by the 1993 Clay Compromise to help fund nonprofit mail. Another $49 million is to cover costs associated with free mail for the blind and overseas voting material. Potter seeks the additional $928 million for the remaining revenue forgone reimbursement.
But according to the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers, subcommittee chairman Ernest Istook (R-OK) is not optimistic that the subcommittee “will be in a position to consider this request in the current fiscal year.”
The Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers points out that the USPS has already received $175 million from the White House and an additional $500 million from Congress in response to the 2001 anthrax attacks. But the USPS will need $1.7 billion more during the next two years to address a new emergency preparedness plan, according to Potter.