Lawmakers doubt White House’s commitment to postal reform

Lawmakers of both parties are frustrated by the White House’s inaction on legislation to overhaul the way the U.S. Postal Service operates.
House Government Reform Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., is frustrated that the White House does not appear to recognize the urgency of reforming the Postal Service and has not lent its clout to advance the bills, said Davis spokesman David Marin.

The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, S 2468 and HR 4341, have been passed unanimously by the House Government Reform and Judiciary committees and the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. They have not been scheduled for a vote in their respective chambers.

Bush is the first president since Richard Nixon to publicly support postal reform.

After years of failed reform legislation, the White House formed a commission in December 2002 to study the challenges facing the Postal Service and suggest ways to change the agency’s business operations. The commission released a report in July 2003. In December 2003, President Bush met with the commission and announced five broad principles for postal reform.

However, since then, the only public statements by the administration on the reform effort have been objections to provisions that would make the Treasury once again responsible for paying postal employees’ military pensions and release billions of dollars scheduled to go to an escrow account beginning in 2006.

Treasury Secretary John Snow told lawmakers in March that the White House opposes releasing the escrow money if it will mean a higher deficit. Snow said lawmakers should find other places to cut the deficit before the escrow fund could be released.

And Office of Personnel Management Deputy Director Dan Blair said in February the Postal Service is meant to be self-sufficient and should cover the military pension costs.

A Democratic aide on the Hill involved with the reform effort said the White House refuses to discuss these and other objections it has to the legislation.

“The White House had plenty of time to engage us on their concerns,” the aide said. “They haven’t contacted or met with us.”

The aide did not say what the White House’s other concerns were, but said they were relatively minor and “could be resolved if they engaged us.”

Marin said Davis feels the administration does not understand how important the escrow and military pension issues are to postal reform.

Both complications were created in 2003 when Congress corrected a potential overpayment by the Postal Service into the Civil Service Retirement System. The amount of the potential overpayments, about $3 billion a year, will go to an escrow fund beginning in 2006. The military pensions will cost the Postal Service about $27 billion.

Congress was expected to adjourn Oct. 8.