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On July 24, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, held a mark-up session on his postal bill, H.R. 2748. The committee, which has oversight of the Postal Service, passed the measure on a party-line vote and recommend it for consideration by the full House of Representatives.
The NALC strongly opposes this harmful bill. During Congress' upcoming summer recess, when House members will be visiting constituents in their home districts, our legislative and grassroots activists will meet with our representatives and explain to them how this bill:
- fails to provide a long-term solution to the disastrous and unfair pre-funding burden
- jeopardizes the Postal Service’s most important asset: its brand for trusted universal service
- would slash services to Americans and eliminate at least 100,000 good jobs
- directly attacks postal employees’ collective-bargaining rights
- creates a costly new level of bureaucracy at the Postal Service.
Here is NALC President Fredric Rolando’s statement:
Depriving Americans of the door-to-door delivery they rely on is a losing proposition that enjoys little support among the public. Even the postmaster general recently testified to Congress that it arouses widespread concern.
Ending door-to-door delivery for tens of millions of Americans would particularly harm small businesses as well as the elderly and people who live in areas with extreme weather. And it’s counterproductive financially, because—as is the case with the proposal to eliminate Saturday delivery—degrading service would drive mail out of the system and reduce revenue.
And cutting service doesn’t even address the Postal Service’s financial problems, which aren’t caused by mail delivery. Almost all of its red ink stems from the 2006 congressional mandate to pre-fund future retiree health benefits—something no other public agency or private company is required to do.
Lawmakers should fix the problems they created, not make counterproductive reductions in service to America’s businesses and residents. There are many opportunities, such as the boom in package deliveries from the expanding e‑commerce market mentioned today, ready to be tapped if lawmakers act responsibly.