Posted on 02/19/2017 7:22:46 AM PST by Kaslin
Congress seems serious about postal reform this time around.
After watching legislation die in the election-shortened Congress last year, a bipartisan group of members have introduced the Postal Service Reform Act of 2017 in the first month of the new Congress.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, introduced the legislation along with Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), ranking member of the committee, and Reps. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), Gerry Connolly (D-VA), and Stephen Lynch (D-MA). Lynch is the son of a postman.
“Postal reform in a bipartisan way that gets to the president’s desk is something that is certainly a goal for this committee,” Chaffetz said.
Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), who shepherded postal legislation in the Senate during the last Congress, said he was “encouraged” by reports the House “intended to move postal reform … rapidly.”
It’s probably better for taxpayers and mail customers if the legislation does not move too rapidly because the early iteration would not address the problems that have caused the Postal Service to lose $5.6 billion in the last year and $60 billion in the last 10.
The Postal Service’s financial problems stem in part from bad business decisions and in part on requirements imposed by Congress in the last round of postal reform that USPS prefund pensions and benefits for its 600,000 employees.
The Postal Service failed to make the $5.8 billion prefunding payment, leaving it nearly $40 billion behind in contributions to the fund – on top of a $15 billion line of credit from the federal government it already had used to prefund benefits.
Instead of forcing the Postal Service to rethink a business model that has it deeply invested in a number of unprofitable lines, Congress wants to make the benefits problem go away. The legislation proposed by Chaffetz would establish separate plans for postal employees within the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, the same program Congress itself uses.
Similarly, eligible postal retirees, employees and their families would be re-enrolled automatically in Medicare Part A and Part B. This means the Postal Service, which purports to operate as an independent federal entity, will have its benefits paid for by the federal government.
This wipes out a quarter of the Postal Service’s costs, which gives it a huge leg up on private-sector competitors.
The legislation also calls for a one-cent rate hike on first-class mail, which is already its most profitable service, and a full review of costs for its market-dominant products by Jan. 1, 2018.
It would shrink the Postal Board of Governors from nine members to seven – five appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate and the Postmaster General and Deputy Postmaster General. This would reduce the influence of electorally accountable presidential appointees to the board in favor of unelected bureaucrats.
The legislation would push the country toward centralized or cluster box delivery. It would require conversion if 40 percent of residents agree and would mandate incremental change to centralized delivery for all business addresses. The legislation would do so without mandating any meaningful changes to USPS operations to improve upon its continuously deteriorating service performance for its core letter mail products.
Additionally, the legislation calls for an annual report to the Postal Rate Commission on the costs, revenues, rates and quality of service for each non-postal service agreement. The Postal Rate Commission then would have to determine whether prices charged for non-postal products truly reflected the Postal Service’s costs, and contracts that don’t pay for themselves could be reduced, redirected or eliminated altogether.
The highly controversial move of closing local post offices also will be addressed in the legislation. Postal Service would consider factors such as distance to the next post office, characteristics of that other location, including weather and terrain, and how much broadband is available in the area. Further, the time for the Postal Rate Commission to review the Postal Service’s decision to close a post office would be reduced from 120 days to 60.
The proposal also calls for creation of a Chief Innovation Officer position to manage development and implementation of innovative postal products and services, but it does not clarify the level of scrutiny and cost analysis practices needed to understand how new ventures affect the bottom line. This role also consolidates various inspectors general with oversight on the Postal Service into a new Inspector General for the Postal Community.
The new law would provide some employees with access to the Merit Systems Protection Board, which is supposed to protect whistleblowers.
There are things to like in the legislation, but the positives are far outweighed by concerns and remaining unknowns. The Postal Service needs to stop delivering groceries in San Francisco and fish in New York. It needs to stop losing money on poorly thought out Negotiated Service Agreements with Amazon and others. And it needs to address its very real pension obligations in a way that doesn’t threaten to put American taxpayers on the hook.
It’s doable, but Congress definitely should take time to get this right. It is not there yet.
Elijah Cummings wants this...then I am positive I do not want this.
The postal system needs privatization. All it does is facilitate crap mail advertising that nobody I know actually wants delivered. STOP Saturdays. Allow compitition to use mail boxes!! NOW!!
Back quite a few decades, when the U.S. Post Office was a government body, it actually MADE A PROFIT. Yes, back when a first class letter would mail for 3 cents!!! And an air mail letter was 5 cents. The profit of the USPS would go into the general fund. As far as I know, this was the ONLY government agency that ever made a profit.
Tell that scumbag Cummings to chew on that.
I went to the Post Office last week.
I haven’t been to one in years.
The clerk was combative.
Screw the Post Office.
Deliver mail every other day. Most days when I walk out to get the mail I throw all of it in the garbage on the way back in.
Yep.
They don’t need to “discontinue Saturday delivery”.
They need to allocate every delivery route to “Group A” or “Group B”.
Group A routes get delivery Monday/Wednesday/Friday.
Group B routes get delivery Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday.
Lay-off half of all employees at all levels of management involved in the delivery of mail; that cuts the payroll costs of that segment in half.
It also makes the existing fleet of delivery vehicles last twice as long.
The only exception to the every-other-day policy would be business customers that get enough mail that it would require an extra vehicle trip to deliver it.
First, get the postal employees to realize they are a in service business and not some when I get around to it job. I never use them when I can use fed-ex. Postal employees have the worst attitude of anyone I have ever met. Thank God they aren’t working in the veterans hospitals.
Yes, I can see the need for business deliveries everyday. If I got my home mail three times a week it would be plenty.
While they are at it, drop the expensive franking privileges for politicians. They no longer communicate during their terms by snail mail, inundate us at election time and have an unfair advantage over their challengers.
Empty the mailbox, toss contents in the trash. It’s become a time-wasting daily ritual.
I swear, the entire state of Utah, including pols associated with its church beyond the state’s borders, must be the most corrupt uniparty players in the country.
This “reform” is horrible!!!
Who’s looking out for the taxpayer?
Yeah, that was when they had a monopoly so no competitive products or pricing—and unions and corruption hadn’t so nearly done in its efficiency.
Marking...
If Elijah Cummings wants it, it does nothing to bust up the Postal Service Employees Union. They have blocked every attempt at real reform.
The USPS can not even deliver their so called Priority mail on time. Mailed a Priority 8x11 cardboard envelope on Feb. 3 from Colorado to INDIANAPOLIS, IN. It went to Houston and sat there until Feb 7. Finally got delivered on Feb. 9th.
Also, have you noticed there is no way to complain to them?
Especially with junk mail
One reader in Townhall.com suggested that the mail only be delivered 3 days a week.
Merge the post system into social media. Let everyone sign up for a secure @postoffice.com email box where they can get all their mail digitally sent. Then have post office centers for packages.
I am married to a rural USPS postal carrier in a small town. These people are salt of the earth types who go out of their way to ensure their customers are taken care of, they check on their elderly customers and do things above and beyond. My carrier has a sixty mile route and works 6 days a week, getting every other Monday off. Not all of the postal staff are idiots, rural carries have scanners that track their every move just like UPS. Most do not even take lunch and are on the road most of the day. I love my carrier!
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