OIG provides a Primer on Postal Reform

Steve HutkinsBlog, Featured

The USPS OIG has just released a report entitled Primer on Postal Reform. The report reviews the key provisions of the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 (PSRA), signed into law on April 6, 2022, and “identifies potential opportunities and challenges they present for the Postal Service.” As described by the IG, the financial provisions of the PSRA “will eliminate … Read More

Legislation to end postal facility closures reintroduced in House

SteveBlog

Daily Journal Lifestyle: Representatives Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael), David McKinley (R- WV), Jose Serrano (D-NY), Evan Jenkins (R-WV), and Gwen Moore (D-WI) have reintroduced the Stop Postal Closures Act (H.R. 6282), bipartisan legislation to end the closure and consolidations of mail processing facilities across the country.  (The bill was introduced during the previous session of Congress as H.R. 4656.) In … Read More

Congress tries again: The Postal Service Reform Act of 2016

SteveStory

The House is looking at another postal reform bill, but does it have a chance of becoming law?  A lot of money has been spent lobbying Congress for legislation to fix the USPS, with not much to show for it. wo weeks ago the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released a draft of “The Postal Service Reform Act of … Read More

House committee holds session on Postal Service

SteveBlog

The House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform is holding a meeting today on “Reforming The Postal Service: Finding A Viable Solution.” The purpose of the session is to examine the need for timely and comprehensive postal reform legislation and to hear from key stakeholders to better understand the specific provisions necessary for a comprehensive solution. The video is here, … Read More

Proposed legislation would stop closures and consolidations

adminBlog

Legislation has been introduced in Congress that would halt Postal Service plans to close and consolidate mail processing facilities across the countryThe Stop Postal Closures Act of 2016 would: Put a moratorium on current closures and consolidations; Establish a framework that any future closures be approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC); Create a list of criteria and data that USPS must … Read More

Epic Fail for the Postal Service: The wrong model and the wrong BOG

adminStory

BY MARK JAMISON In 2001 Postmaster General Bill Henderson submitted the first blueprints for a transformation of the Postal Service into a sleeker, more efficient business entity.  To justify the transformation, the rhetoric has repeated one mantra: the problem with the Postal Service is its outmoded and defective business model.   A great deal of our speech with public policy … Read More

Congresswoman Barbara Lee proposes moratorium on sale of historic post offices

adminStory

Congresswoman Barbara Lee 
of California (13th District) has introduced legislation to halt the sale and consolidation of historic Postal Service facilities. The Moratorium on US Historic Postal Buildings Act would prevent the Postal Service from selling any facility until all buildings listed or eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places are removed from the auction block.  The text of … Read More

Why Congress should not get out of the way of the Postal Service

adminStory

BY MARK JAMISON News that Ron Johnson, the Tea Party favorite from Wisconsin, will be taking over as chair of the Senate committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs has caused an overwhelming sense of panic among progressives and postal workers.  Johnson will control oversight of the Postal Service in the Senate. There may be good reason to think this … Read More

Can it get much worse? The Senate tries postal reform, again

SteveBlog, Jamison Articles

BY MARK JAMISON The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs finally took up its postal reform bill at a markup session on Wednesday, January 29.  The new S.1486 the committee took up is significantly different from the Carper-Coburn bill released last August.  The current version, aka the substitute bill or the managers’ amendment, has introduced changes to the … Read More

Congressional vote blocks Berkeley post office sale

adminBlog

Berkeley's hopes of keeping its century-old post office off the auction block have gotten a boost in Congress, where a bipartisan House bill urges the Postal Service to refrain from selling historic buildings, including Berkeley's, while the U.S. inspector general investigates whether the agency is violating preservation laws.  Read more.

California Legislature passes resolution urging Congress to enact Postal Protection Service Act of 2013

adminBlog

The California Legislature has passed a resolution urging Congress to enact the Postal Protection Service Act of 2013 (sponsored by Sanders and DeFazio). The federal legislation would repeal the mandate to prefund retiree health care, allow the USPS to provide new services, prohibit cuts to Saturday service and keep historic post offices open.  Senator Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley), author of the … Read More

A Commonsense Approach to Postal Reform: Congress should fix the problem it created

adminBlog

A couple of weeks ago, New York Times columnist Gail Collins wrote a piece entitled "Playing Post Office," in which see played "Let's fix the Postal Servce."  Needless to say, she didn't know what she was talking about.   But her piece got John Flattery, president of Central MA Area Local APWU motivated to write a well-informed and lucid editorial about … Read More

Sen. Sanders: Congress Must Not Hobble Postal Service Rebound

adminBlog

Press release from Senator Bernie Sanders: With revenue rebounding, the U.S. Postal Service would have posted a profit for the past three months without an unprecedented requirement that it sink $5.5 billion a year into future retiree health care, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said today.  The latest quarterly report on Postal Service finances showed a $740 million loss, but all … Read More

The Senate does postal reform: Highlights and low points of the Carper-Coburn bill

adminStory

Senators Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) have introduced their version of postal reform legislation, the Postal Reform Act of 2013, a.k.a. PRA and S.1486.  A summary is here, and the whole bill is here. The new bill contains several changes from the earlier Senate bill, S.1789, that should bring the House and Senate closer together and make the passage of … Read More