The Postal Rate Commission has temporarily suspended hearings on the U.S. Postal Service's proposal for a June 30 rate increase to give participants in the case more time to reach a case-ending agreement.
The hearings were to have resumed Jan. 3 and continue through the following Tuesday.
They were ordered suspended by PRC Chairman George Omas at the request of postal officials who indicated that more time was needed to reach agreement on the case-ending settlement with some of the participants in the case who were not identified.
Omas raised the possibility of a negotiated settlement to the rate case shortly after it was filed in September. He cited the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the discovery of anthrax-laced letters in the mail stream as the main justifications for a settlement.
Although settlement negotiations began in October, it wasn't until last week when postal officials cleared the way for a case-ending agreement when they agreed not to raise rates before June 30 or file for another rate hike before late September when the USPS begins its new fiscal year.
In his order suspending the hearings, Omas said he could not order an absolute end to the hearings because there was no indication that all participants in the rate case supported a negotiated end to the case.
He asked uncommitted rate case participants to tell the PRC by Jan. 18 if they supported or opposed a negotiated settlement.
Omas noted that the lack of unanimity would require the PRC to resume its hearings which, in turn, would force the PRC to file its recommendations on the requested rate hike with the postal service's Board of Governors some time in May instead of before March 25 as requested by postal officials.
