Nonprofit mailers warned that their ability to provide their charitable services would be severely limited without meaningful postal reform.
But at the same time, Neal Denton, executive directory of the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers, was cautiously optimistic a Congressional bill will be introduced this year—or at least before the U.S. Postal Service files its next rate case.
"Without legislative reforms that will stabilize nonprofit postage rate increases and our ability to adequately predict them, not only will charitable mailing go down, but organizations that provide social services, foster the arts, support education, and feed the hungry will be severely injured," Lester C. Hess Jr., past national president of the Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks of the United States of America said in testimony Wednesday before the House Special Panel on House Special Panel on Postal Reform and Oversight.
Hess proposed setting caps on nonprofit mail rates as Congress considers postal reform and requested that there be no "hidden escape hatch" for the USPS to sidestep these caps ands produce rate shock for nonprofit mailers.
He noted that nonprofit mailers account for over 8% of total mail volume.
Separately, Christopher G. Cleghorn, president of the Alliance, put it more simply: "For nonprofit mailers, postal reform is all about postal rates," he said. "Every dollar saved from excessive postal rates is a dollar spent on the mission of the nonprofit charity."
