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• Preston Apppointed Region 13 RAA
• Miller Elected to Chair Postal Board
• New Postal Reform Legislation Set for Congressional Action
• NALC Food Drive 2005

NALC President William H. Young has appointed Vada E. Preston, president of Tidewater, Virginia Branch 247, as a Regional Administrative Assistant in Region 13 covering Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington, DC.

Preston, 42, fills the vacancy created when Timothy Dowdy was elevated to National Business Agent following the retirement of Richard Gentry.

A 19-year letter carrier, Preston had been serving as president of his 365-member local branch based in Portsmouth since 2003. Previously, he had been elected vice president in 1996 after serving four years as a shop steward. He also was the branch’s Postal Record scribe.

In 1999 Preston was trained in the Dispute Resolution Process and has served as a backup team member. He attended arbitration advocate training and was a local business agent. Most recently he was trained as an instructor in the new shop steward training program.

	John McHugh (R-NY)

Rep. John McHugh (R-NY), who has nurtured postal reform legislation through congressional minefields for several years, took the lead again in the 109th Congress by introducing H.R. 22, the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, on January 4 – the first day of the session – in an effort to bring finality to changes to the existing 34-year-old Postal Reorganization Act this year.

McHugh’s bill was nearly identical to language approved by the House Government Reform Committee last year on a 40-0 vote, including only minor modifications.

NALC President William H. Young applauded McHughs’ leadership, along with that of chief cosponsors Tom Davis, (R-VA), chair of the committee; Henry Waxman (D-CA), ranking Democrat on the panel, and Danny Davis (D-IL). McHugh and Davis head up a special postal panel as an off-shoot of the full committee.

"These four have never wavered in their support of legislation to reform our nation’s postal laws in a manner beneficial to the working men and women of the U.S. Postal Service and improving the Service’s ability to compete in today’s technology driven marketplace,” Young said. “It is encouraging to see them again at the forefront as we seek to assure long-term job security for postal employees and top-notch service for postal customers.”

	Susan Collins (R-ME)	Tom Davis (R-VA)

In the Senate, Chairwoman Susan Collins (R-ME), another stalwart leader behind meaningful postal reform along with Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), Ted Stevens (R-AK), and Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), is expected to reintroduce her own bill shortly for consideration by the renamed Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Both Collins and Davis were formally elected by their Republican peers to chair their respective committees in the new Congress.

In reintroducing his bill, McHugh said it will not only ensure survival of the Postal Service, but also help preserve universal service at affordable rates for American mailing consumers.

We’ve bridged many divides in reaching this point, and I am confident that all parties involved will succeed in supporting this $900 billion industry and its nine million jobs,” McHugh said.

He also expressed his concern about a bleak future for the Postal Service without action as first-class mail volume declines and postal addresses increase.

“We simply cannot fail to act.” McHugh said. “Postal reform is not a luxury we cannot afford – it is a necessity we can no longer avoid.”

The bill includes a provision – opposed by the Bush administration – to return to the Treasury Department a $27 billion obligation for funding Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) pension benefits related to military service of postal retirees. It also contains language that would repeal a provision requiring that money owed to the Postal Service because of an overpayment into the CSRS fund be held in an escrow account, a move that could provide $78 billion over 60 years for the Postal Service.

Included in the legislation are some recommendations of the President’s Commission on the U.S. Postal Service that would increase the Service’s business flexibility and also replace the current Postal Rate Commission with a new Postal Regulatory Commission with broader authority and more power.

Registration forms for branches that are participating in the 13th annual NALC National Food Drive on May 14 are due at NALC headquarters no later than February 1 in order that coordinator’s packets can be sent to those branches. The packets will include a form for ordering FREE Campbell Soup/U.S. Postal Service postcards for delivery to postal customers.

To date, 513 NALC branches have registered for the 2005 drive. Branches must renew their registration for the 2005 drive to receive the postcard order form.

The registration forms for the 2005 “Stamp Out Hunger” drive were included with a letter from NALC President William H. Young to all branch presidents in December.

Questions regarding the registration should be directed to Drew Von Bergen, national coordinator of the food drive, at (202) 662-2489, by email at vonbergen@nalc.org or by mail at NALC headquarters.