Mailers council calls on White House to create postal reform commission to study postal service

The Mailers Council, the nation's largest coalition of mailers and mailing associations, today called on the White House to create a Presidential Commission on Postal Reform to evaluate the United States Postal Service (USPS).

In a letter to President George Bush, Mailers Council Executive Director Bob McLean notes that the USPS has found it increasingly difficult to provide universal service at an affordable price. The USPS reported a loss of $1.7 billion in 2001 and projects a deficit of $1.5 billion this fiscal year.

Annual retirement plan costs will escalate to $14 billion by 2010. The difficulties of the USPS are so severe the General Accounting Office put the agency on its High-Risk List, primarily because GAO believes billions of dollars in taxpayer money are at risk.

Mailers "are gravely concerned about the financial stability of the USPS," McLean said in the letter. "This agency delivers essential services to millions of American citizens. It is part of a $9 billion industry that provides jobs for nine million workers. Those essential services and the mailing industry, however, are threatened by a growing list of financial problems that deserve the administration's immediate attention."

Congress will consider legislation to aid the Postal Service this month, McLean said, "and we will be pleased if such a bill addresses some of our concerns. However, many issues may be left unresolved that must be addressed now. A presidential commission would study the Postal Service and recommend changes to cope with the current challenges to its core mission."

There is precedence for such a postal commission. In 1967 the Johnson Administration and Congress worked together to create the Kappel Commission, whose report was the foundation for the 1971 legislation that created the USPS to replace the cabinet-level Post Office Department. The Mailers Council believes a new postal reform commission "should be similarly constituted, with members including high-level business, business education and organized labor leaders without any direct interest in the mailing industry. An equally high-level professional staff would support them."

McLean noted that because of the importance of the Postal Service to the nation's economy, the Mailers Council believes this commission "must be named as quickly as possible and directed to submit a written report to the President outlining its recommendations within nine months of the commission's creation."

The Postal Service is a vital partner "to businesses nationwide," according to the letter to President Bush. "The Postal Service makes it possible for American businesses to market their products and services and to get them delivered. In many areas of the country, the Postal Service is the only delivery option. The Postal Service does more than sustain communication among people in every city and town, large and small; it contributes substantially to a vital United States economy. The demise of the USPS would have devastating financial consequences for businesses, and could leave the federal government with billions of dollars in financial obligations. For the good of the nation, we hope you will concur with our recommendation and create a new postal reform commission."

The Mailers Council is a coalition of 36 corporations, nonprofit organizations and major mailing associations. Mailers Council members represent for-profit and nonprofit mailers that use the United States Postal Service to deliver correspondence, publications, parcels, greeting cards and payments. Collectively the Council accounts for 70 percent of the nation's mail volume.