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TISDALE OPPOSITION GROWING In a letter addressed to Sen. Susan Collins, Chairman of the Governmental Affairs Committee, Gene Del Polito of the Association for Postal Commerce adds his voice to the growing opposition to the nomination of Dawn Tisdale to the Postal Rate Commission. �We have reviewed information available regarding Mr. Tisdale's occupational and educational training and experience,� writes Del Polito. �We then compared this information against those criteria specified in the recommendations made by the President's Commission on the Postal Service, the Senate's own draft of a bill for postal reform, and the House measure that recently was reported to the entire House by the Committee on Government Reform. We regret to say that, when measured against these criteria, we find this nominee lacking. Consequently, we feel compelled to recommend that this candidacy be given no further consideration by the U.S. Senate.� Tisdale is a former postmaster and postal union official. His appointment has been likened to a fox guarding the henhouse and who will be nothing more than a �rubber stamp� for labor union-backed rate increases. GREAT (NON)WORK...IF YOU CAN GET IT �A federal grand jury in Greenbelt yesterday indicted five U.S. Postal Service workers from Maryland on charges of fraudulently receiving more than $200,000 in workers' compensation benefits.� All five collected the benefits after claiming they had been injured, federal authorities said.� The benefits are supposed to go to people who are disabled because of injuries. But the defendants continued working at other jobs while asserting on workers' compensation forms that they had no other income, according to the indictments.� - Washington Post, 5/11/04 RECIPE FOR DISASTER: DELIVERING LESS TO MORE LOCATIONS �First-class mail volume -- 53 percent of revenue -- has been down two years in a row, a trend expected to worsen. The 207.8 billion pieces of mail handled in 2000 fell to 202.1 billion last year. That's more than 5 billion pieces replaced by e-mail, cheaper long-distance calls, and electronic billing and purchasing. The Postal Service has compensated by raising rates, freezing hiring and canceling construction. Problem is, the number of delivery points increased by 5.4 million between 2000 and 2003�� - Kansas City Business Journal, 4/30/04 FLIRTIN� WITH DISASTER �Today, the Postal Service is in deep financial trouble. It is hemorrhaging money, with long-term projections bordering on catastrophic. . . . The public has little idea of how bad the situation really is, largely due to the murkiness of USPS accounting. Unless postal executives and regulators have a clear picture of what is actually going on, the chances of effective reform are bleak and costs will continue to spin out of control.� - Sam Ryan of the Lexington Institute, The Hill, 5/6/04 UH-OH...GRAB YOUR WALLETS! �While a number of factors are yet unresolved, the next postal rate case could bring about increases of 10% to 12%, according to consultant Larry Buc. Furthermore, the government's likely failure to address postal reform this year will add to the uncertainty, and - if pending fiscal issues aren't resolved - to the ultimate increases. Buc is in a position to know: He is president of SLS Consulting, a Washington firm specializing in economic, operational and environmental analysis in the mailing industry.� - Hoover�s Online, 5/3/04 DE-MONOPOLIZE OR PRIVATIZE �A survey of economists specializing in postal services has found that they recommend that the government-supported United States Postal Service (USPS) be de-monopolized or privatized.� - National Center for Policy Analysis, 5/14/04 LEGALIZED UNFAIR TRADE PRACTICE �In effect, the USPS marks up the price of its monopoly-protected letter mail to subsidize its other businesses, such as package and periodical delivery, where it competes with private companies. The result is that stamp buyers pay over two-thirds of the USPS overhead and end up subsidizing its non-core businesses. . . . By hiking rates on its captive monopoly consumers, the USPS can charge below-market rates in its competitive businesses. �If the Postal Service weren�t a government agency immune from anti-trust laws, this would be called predatory monopolistic behavior. But this is still a flagrant abuse of the monopoly, which was granted by Congress so that the USPS could deliver letters everywhere for one reasonable price. The monopoly was never intended as a means to finance aggressive USPS expansion into the private sector.� - Sam Ryan of the Lexington Institute, The Hill, 5/6/04 REFORM BILL FINALLY EMERGES �Hard to believe, but true. After 10 years of effort, the House Government Reform Committee this week approved a bill that would overhaul the U.S. Postal Service. It's the first major bill to head to the House floor in three decades, according to the committee. The bill was steered through the committee by committee Chairman Thomas M. Davis III (R-VA) and approved 40 to 0. Its chief author is Rep. John M. McHugh (R-N.Y.), who has worked to bridge differences among big mailers, unions and the post office." - Washington Post, 5/14/04 APC: TWO THUMBS DOWN �This is a horrible, horrible disappointment. . . . I haven't seen anything to suggest the postal service is going to be any better off under this bill.� - Gene Del Polito, president of the Association for Postal Commerce on the draft language for a House postal reform bill, GovExec.com, 5/5/04 NO WONDER THE UNIONS ARE HAPPY When the House version of postal reform legislation was announced last week, we were immediately suspicious when we heard that the postal unions were dancing a jig over it.� Well, suspicions confirmed. It seems that buried in the bill is a little set-aside which mandates a seat on the postal board of governors be reserved for a union stooge.� The seat may not "be filled by any person other than an individual chosen from among persons nominated for such office with the unanimous concurrence of all labor organizations." So tell us, how many seats on the board have been reserved for taxpayers? Senior citizens?� Charitable organizations?� Magazine publishers?� Mail order cataloguers?� Overnight shippers?� Soldiers in the military?� I mean, why is it that only the unions are being offered a guaranteed seat at the table...especially since they are the primary problem rather than the solution to the postal service's financial woes? The more we look at this emerging postal "reform" bill, the more we find not to like. ********************************************* GOIN� POSTAL is published by: Citizen Outreach Chuck Muth President/Editor 611 Pennsylvania Ave., SE, #439 Washington, DC 20003 (410) 391-7408 For more information on the issue of postal reform, visit www.postalreform.com
