The Direct Marketing Association has come out against reported mailer industry proposals to develop a presidential commission to study the U.S. Postal Service at the expense of more immediate action by Congress.
DMA senior vice president of government affairs Jerry Cerasale told DIRECT Newsline that Congress should take action now to stave off rate hikes rumored as high as 20% when the USPS files its next rate case. which he suspects to take place in June or July.
“The Postal Service is in serious financial trouble,” he said.
“Now is the time for action,” added DMA president H. Robert Wientzen, in a statement. He called for the immediate reintroduction of the Postal Modernization Act of 1999 that did not make it to the floor in the last session of Congress “Action is necessary now to ensure the U.S. Postal Service remains fiscally solvent and competitive in the 21st century,” Wientzen said.
He dismissed the idea of a commission as a waste of time.
Major decreases in the first-class mailstream are already eating at the foundation of postal business, especially with the jump in online transactions, according to a 1999 General Accounting Office study, which projected sharp declines in first-class volume by the year 2003 that could drain $17 billion in USPS revenue.
