Postal Reform Now

The Direct Marketing Association and
The DMA Nonprofit Federation

Talking Points on Postal Reform Legislation

Updated June 10, 2005

SITUATION:

The U.S. Postal Service is operating under a business model devised 34 years ago, which is ill-suited for today’s business climate. We need meaningful legislative postal reform NOW in order to ensure the continued viability of the Postal Service on which depend some 9 million domestic jobs and approximately $900 billion in commerce.
Postal reform in order to strengthen our postal system and mitigate the negative impact of an expected postal rate increase in 2006. The United States Postal Service has filed a request with the Postal Rate Commission for a 5.4 percent increase in postal rates for 2006. To make matters worse, the Postal Service is expected to file a request for an additional 5-7 percent increase in 2007. Increases of this magnitude could take billions of dollars out of the American economy, and, thus stunt recovery and growth.
Without reform and facing significant rate increases, mailers are being forced to look at other ways to control their costs of doing business, such as:
- Job cuts and reducing the salary and benefits of remaining workers.
- Reducing mail volume, leading to additional rate increases.
- Postponing or canceling new mail-dependant product launches.
Failure to pass postal reform legislation this year will put countless American manufacturing and many of the 9 million mailing industry-jobs at risk, and expose the American consumer to unnecessarily large and unpredictable future postal rate hikes.
Nonprofit and commercial mailers cannot continue to operate in an environment that lacks rate predictability and ever-rising costs. If there needs to be rate increases, then they must be predictable and affordable, to allow for business decisions that invest in mail, which, in turn, supports the viability of the USPS.
If reform legislation is enacted mailers may face a somewhat smaller increase in 2006 and more affordable and predictable increases in the future.

TELL YOUR SENATORS OR REPRESENTATIVE:

We need you to engage your colleagues to tell Congressional leaders to expedite the passage of meaningful postal reform legislation that reconciles the five outstanding issues in a manner that ensures a viable postal system.
There are several key issues that must be addressed to ensure the best reform legislation for the Postal Service and all those who depend on its continued viability:
- Eliminate the escrow account
- Reverse the current policy on postal retirement costs for military service
- Place a hard cap on rate increases
- Encourage worksharing discounts