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WASHINGTON – The president of the 300,000-member National Association of Letter Carriers (AFL-CIO) today urged Sen. Christopher S. Bond (R-MO) to stop blocking a Senate floor vote on bi-partisan reform legislation that would help the U.S. Postal Service provide more efficient service to Americans and also prevent unnecessary postage rate increases.
NALC President William H. Young said the scheduled increase of first class postage from 37 cents to 39 cents in January, along with increases for other classifications, could have been avoided if S. 662 had been enacted by this time.
"The blame for this rate hike falls squarely on those who have held up postal reform," Young said.
Young released a November 30 letter he sent to Bond specifically asking the senator to lift the ‘hold" he has placed against S. 662, the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2005, and to allow an up-or-down vote on the legislation before the expected adjournment of the First Session of the 109th Congress before Christmas.
Similar legislation was passed by the House of Representatives on a 410-20 vote in July. S. 662 was subsequently approved by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on a near unanimous vote, paving the way for Senate floor action. Under Senate tradition, however, a senator can prevent further action on a bill or nomination simply by placing a "hold" on it by requesting the leadership not bring it up for a vote.
Young said that if Bond does not immediately lift the "hold," the union is prepared to take direct action, beginning next week, to bring this egregious conduct by Bond to the attention of all Missouri residents.
The bill would strengthen the long-term viability of universal delivery of postal services to all Americans. It would modernize the U.S. Postal Service by giving it greater flexibility to manage its operations and set prices, but also would require the Postal Service to operate more transparently and give expanded oversight power to a new Postal Regulatory Commission.
In his letter, Young noted that Bond had stopped action on the bill due to objections by the Hallmark Cards Inc., which is headquartered in Kansas City, regarding the manner in which postage rates can be adjusted. The union leader labeled the Hallmark proposal as "a back-door attempt to retain today’s flawed system of rate-making-by-litigation which wastes time and money and hopelessly ties up the Postal Service in red tape."
"I urge you to think of the interests of the millions of Missourians who rely on the USPS for business and personal mail service on a daily basis," Young wrote Bond. "In the Internet age, the ability of the Postal Service to maintain affordable and universal mail service in Missouri through the state’s 1,113 facilities depends on the ability of the USPS to operate and price its products more flexibly."
Due to the overwhelming support for the legislation among both Republicans and Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist tried in November to convince Bond to allow a floor vote, assuring him that he would have an opportunity to offer an amendment based on Hallmark’s concerns. Bond rejected the offer.
The NALC has 220,000 active city delivery letter carriers as members in all 50 states and U.S. jurisdictions, including 4,200 active letter carriers in Missouri.
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(Text of letter)
November 30, 2005
The Honorable Christopher S. Bond
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
Dear Senator Bond:
On behalf of the 300,000 members of the National Association of Letter Carriers, I write to urge you to reconsider your approach to S. 662, the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2005. Specifically, I ask that you lift the hold you have placed on this bill and allow it to come to a fair, up-or-down vote in the Senate.
Postal reform legislation is vitally needed. Reform is crucial to ensure the long-term viability and health of a key part of America’s infrastructure, the postal industry. Nearly 10 million Americans, including 187,000 in the state of Missouri, rely on the USPS and related sectors (printing, publishing, direct advertising) for employment. A strong postal sector contributes to a strong national economy.
The 35 year-old statute that now governs the U.S. Postal Service is seriously out of date, having been written decades before the Internet began to transform the American economy and the postal industry. After more than 12 years of debate, a broad consensus has emerged for the kind of postal reform embodied in S. 662, which was passed nearly unanimously by the Senate Governmental Affairs and Homeland Security Committee earlier this year. A similar bill with the same name, H.R. 22, was enacted by the full House of Representatives by a vote of 410-20 in July. That overwhelmingly bipartisan vote demonstrates a rare consensus among both parties, liberals and conservatives, as well as among interest groups, including business and labor, on this important issue.
Although I understand that the hold you have placed on S. 662 relates to the concerns of the Hallmark Greeting Card Co., which employs some 4,500 of your constituents in the Kansas City area, I urge you to think of the interests of the millions of Missourians who rely on the USPS for business and personal mail service on a daily basis. In the Internet age, the ability of the Postal Service to maintain affordable and universal mail service in Missouri through the state’s 1,113 facilities depends on the ability of the USPS to operate and price its products more flexibly.
Hallmark’s proposal to mandate a "fair and equitable" criterion in the legislation’s rate-making language is a back-door attempt to retain today’s flawed system of rate-making-by-litigation which wastes time and money and hopelessly ties up the Postal Service in red tape. It would undermine the fair and efficient price indexing system included in S. 662 and H.R. 22 that the vast majority of mailers support.
Of course, you have a legitimate right to pursue this amendment on behalf of Hallmark. But it is hard to understand why you recently turned down the opportunity to debate the amendment and to subject it and the overall bill to an "up-or-down" vote in the full Senate. Senator Susan Collins, who chairs the Governmental Affairs Committee and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist had hoped to schedule action on the bill before the end of the year. The 6,300 members of the NALC in Missouri urge you to reconsider your position. The fairness of an "up-or-down" vote is something you have repeatedly advocated in other contexts (such as homeland security and judicial appointments) that are much more controversial than this one.
The fact is, after 12 long years, the debate over postal reform has gone on too long already and the delay in passing it will hurt Missourians and all Americans. Indeed, the scheduled postage rate increase in January 2006 could have been avoided if S. 662 had been enacted earlier. The Postal Service filed for the 5.4% rate increase solely to fund an unnecessary escrow account set up to hold USPS pension cost savings from an earlier pension reform bill until Congress instructed the Postal Service on what to do with the escrow money. S. 662 provides such direction and repeals the escrow account legislation; but the delayed passage of the bill means that rates must go up in January. The blame for this rate hike falls squarely on those who have held up postal reform.
NALC has a long tradition of supporting Democrats and Republicans who support a strong U.S. Postal Service and the rights of letter carriers to bargain collectively. In the long debate over postal reform, we have tried to understand the interests of other postal stakeholders as we have sought to promote the overall health of the postal industry. We have worked long and hard with leaders of both parties and with allies in the mailing community to build a consensus on postal reform. It was not easy, and we had to make a lot of difficult compromises. Hallmark should be prepared to do the same. Most mailers do not support the position taken by Hallmark on the "fair and equitable" objective. If the company’s amendment cannot garner majority support in the Senate, it is not right to hold up a bill that has overwhelming bipartisan support.
I am proud that more than 90% of active letter carriers in Missouri (and, indeed, across the country) voluntarily belong to the NALC. On their behalf, I urge you to lift the hold on S. 662 and permit the Congress to enact long-overdue postal reform legislation.
Sincerely,
William H. Young |
