Mailer groups were pessimistic that two bills introduced Wednesday in Congress would avert a new postal rate case being filed this year.
"It's likely the Postal Service will file a new rate as early as April and that would raise rates next year," said Neal Denton, executive director of the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers. "I'm going to encourage all our members to turn on their word processors and write their elected representatives and urge them not only to vote for these bills but co-sponsor it as well. This is now the most important issue we've had in many years."
One bill, introduced in the house by Rep. John McHugh (R-NY), would prevent a $71 billion overpayment by the postal service to the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS). The bill requires that the savings be used to pay down its debt to the Treasury, to help keep postal rates steady until at least 2006 and to fund retiree health benefits.
Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) introduced similar legislation in the Senate.
"These bills were introduced because the efforts to have it run through the appropriations committee appeared to be dead in the water," said Gene Del Polito, president of the Association for Postal Commerce. "We could have had this whole thing over and done with but now it's going to have to go through the legislative process. It’s going to be a tough row to hoe."
Others took a more optimistic approach.
Bob Mc Lean, executive director of the Mailers Council doesn't necessarily see that fast passage would be slowed by the House and the Senate.
"From everybody I've spoken to, this bill has no opposition so I don't think it will be passed any more slowly," he said. "I'm an optimist."
Late last year, the USPS discovered it had overpaid the CSRS fund that pays its retirees by $71 billion (DIRECT Newsline, Dec. 5, 2002). It said that it could use that "found" money to help avert a new rate case until possibly 2006. The General Accounting Office later found that the USPS overpaid more than it had originally calculated.
At present, these bills have not been assigned to the House Governmental Reform or Senate Government Affairs Committees. McLean estimates this will take place within the next few days.
