The five-year drive by House postal subcommittee chairman Rep. John McHugh (R-NY) to overhaul the U.S. Postal Service may be over.
According to unconfirmed reports McHugh saw little chance for passage of HR-22, the Postal Modernization Act, by January when his term as subcommittee chairman ends.
The legislation, which he has been pursuing since June 1995, has been awaiting action by the subcommittee's parent, the House Government Reform Committee since April 1999. The panel, chaired by Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN), is sharply divided over many of the provisions in the legislation and has refused to act on it.
Against that background McHugh threw in the towel, conceding that chances of the bill clearing the Government Reform Committee, the House and the Senate by late January are virtually non-existent, sources told DIRECT Newsline yesterday.
Telephone calls to McHugh's office for comment were not returned by press time.
The Direct Marketing Association, which in large part supported McHugh's plan to modernize the USPS. The plan gave the service the freedom to set many of its rates and the ability to test-market new products and services without seeking the endorsement of the Postal Rate Commission. Jerry Cerasale, senior vice president, government affairs believes that "postal reform passage is very, very unlikely" in the near future.
Cerasale would not comment on the possibility of postal reform legislation being reintroduced in the 107th Congress. He said the upcoming elections could change the political makeup of the House of Representatives. "At the present time there's no way of telling who the new subcommittee chairman will be, or if the subcommittee will be kept as is or merged with some other panel," he said
