Within the next 30 days President Clinton is expected to sign a bill into law limiting nonprofit postage rates to 60% of the U.S. Postal Service’s commercial rates, and 95% of its rates for first class, periodicals and Standard B Mail rates.
The measure was unanimously approved by the House Wednesday, less than a week after passage by the Senate.
A jubilant Neal Denton, executive director of the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers, hailing the final passage of the bill as a victory, said “All we need now is for the president to sign it into law.”
Breathing a sigh of relief that the House and Senate approved the legislation before today’s scheduled recess, Denton said that nonprofit mailers were “very thankful that with the help of Alliance members, friends and supporters, that charities, museums, religious groups and other nonprofit mailers, will be spared a Draconian rate increase” the USPS plans to implement on Jan. 7.
Officials of the USPS and their Board of Governors are waiting for the PRC’s recommendations on their plan to boost nonprofit rates by nearly 20% and most other rates by an average of 6.4% shortly after the start of the New Year. The PRC is expected to file its recommendation on the proposed rate hike with postal governors by month’s end.
Jerry Cerasale, the Direct Marketing Association’s senior vice president of Government Affairs, also breathed a sigh of relief over the bill’s passage. “We were worried that it wouldn’t make it through the process before tomorrow’s scheduled adjournment,” he said.
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