A commissioner of the Postal Rate Commission stood up for privatizing the Post Office yesterday at a nonprofit breakout session of the Government Affairs conference and was firmly criticized.
In a room full of nonprofit mailers, Ruth Goldway the commissioner, was asked if the Postal Service becomes privatized, how could it be required to meet government policy, like giving preferred treatment to non-profits?
Goldway replied that she figured it would be possible to continue nonprofit rates. Her reply didn’t satisfy very many attendees, according to Lee Cassidy, executive director of the DMA Nonprofit Federation in Washington, D.C.
Other speakers were against privatization. But they all said they were in favor of postal reform, said Cassidy.
In giving his viewpoint later, Cassidy said: "I don't see how you could constitutionally require a for-profit organization to charge different prices to some customers simply because they are nonprofits. That is the central reason we oppose privatization."
John Nolan, deputy postmaster general, spoke out against privatization. Nolan said he favors continuation of nonprofit rates, according to Cassidy. But, the Post Office should be able to change rates more frequently and do without the drawn-out process of going through the Postal Rate Commission every time it wanted to change rates, he said.
The Postal Modernization Act (H.R. 22) was introduced last year, but never moved out of subcommittee. The bill would protect nonprofit rates. A similar bill is expected to be introduced in the current Congressional session.
John Temple, president of the Christian publishing company. Guideposts, one of the largest nonprofit mailers in the country, pointed out that three years ago he spent $21 million on postage for 180 million pieces of direct mail. This year, $21 million will only cover postage for 140 million pieces. Temple also said that nonprofit mail generates a lot of first class return mail, according to Cassidy.
Nonprofit rates are established according to a formula set by Congress of a 40% discount from regular, standard mail. For periodicals, there is a 5% discount on the editorial portion.
