Mailing industry groups anticipate that the meeting on Wed. July 16 of the President’s Commission on the U.S. Postal Service will give them a good idea of what will be in its final report and the eventual fate of the USPS.
“The Commission’s probably going to receive the reports of all its subcommittees and make final recommendations about what’s going be in its final report which will be submitted on July 31 to the President” said Bob McLean, executive director of the Mailers Council.
Some, like Neal Denton, executive director of the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers, think the Commission will closely follow the recommendations made by Postmaster General Jack Potter in his Transformation plan and call for the USPS to have more flexibility on setting prices as well as greater authority to close postal facilities.
Opinions were mixed on what the President’s Commission would recommend about what to do with Postal Rate Commission.
While Denton thinks the President’s Commission might call for a stronger PRC, Gene Del Polito, president of the Association for Postal Commerce, thinks it’s possible the President’s Commission may call for the abolition of the PRC and turning its duties over to other government agencies.
Late last year, President Bush has created this commission to explore the USPS’s mission and operations and to study its role in the 21st century (Direct Newsline, Dec. 11, 2002).
Part of its mission was to study the USPS’s flexibility to change prices and control costs in response to financial and competitive pressures as well as its ability to maintain universal service over the long term.
After the Commission makes its final report to President Bush later this summer it could set the stage for a new round of legislative activity.
“No one knows whether the President will accept of reject the Commission’s findings,” said McLean. “But those recommendations are likely to result in hearings in Congress this fall.”
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