NAPS Leg/Reg Update: 5/10/2012
The plans announced on Wednesday by the Postal Service to keep open thousands of rural post offices has neutralized one of the most controversial provisions in the House postal measure, backed by Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) and awaiting floor action. Numerous problems with the House legislation yet remain, and Republican House leaders have not yet signalled when they intend to bring the Issa legislation to the floor, but it could come next month.
House GOP hesitancy to bring their bill (HR 2309) to the floor has been caused by the some of the same rank-and-file concerns about facility closures that Senate backbenchers initially raised about the Senate bill in January that Democrat leaders had planned to bring to the floor. That pushback resulted three months later in passage of a revised and improved Senate measure. A similar backlash by Republican House lawmakers in recent months, many of them from rural districts, has turned against the Issa bill and especially against the closure of post offices during an election year. The Issa bill had proposed significant post office closures through a base-closure like commission approach.
The Postmaster General’s announcement that rural post offices will remain open, but at reduced hours of operation, largely takes the sting out of the post office closure issue, adding to the possibility of House action on postal reform in the coming weeks. A new Postal Service plan on processing plant closings is expected to be announced next week, which could mirror what the Senate already has done in their bill, closing fewer plants. (NAPS supports the Postal Service’s post office operations plan.)
Meanwhile, the bipartisan Senate-passed postal reform bill has moved over to the House, where Republican leaders have shown little interest in taking it up, despite the urgings of Senate Republican and Democratic leaders, as well as House Democrat and Republican members. Two weeks ago, the bill, the Senate approved the 21st Century Postal Service Act on a 62-37 vote after two days of Senate action on more than 30 amendments. (A summary of those amendments and how Senators voted on all roll call votes can be found here.) The House postal bill, HR 2309, was approved by the House Government Oversight and Reform Committee on March 29, but has not moved to the House floor since then.
American Legion Endorses Plant Closure Limits, Veterans Rights
NAPS is grateful for the support of the American Legion in drawing attention to the consequences of postal plant closures upon military veterans. Veterans comprise over 25% of the Postal Service workforce. When the Postal Service downsizes an operation, the rules of veteran’s preference apply to protect a veteran in the workplace, but not when when an entire competitive area is eliminated (closed) under RIF procedures as applies to many mail processing plant closures.
NAPS Headquarters has been working with veteran’s groups to alert them to this issue. With the assistance of two of NAPS members, Stanley Gold (Florida) and Paul Norton (Indiana), the American Legion National Convention passed a resolution calling for the limitation of processing plant closures and the protection of veterans employment rights. Read the resolution here.
The American Legion will now lobby Congress to ensure that postal legislation addresses these issues as part of sensible postal reform.
Help stamp out postal worker poverty by voting those get rich republicans out of office. They are the ones taking tax dollars not the post office. Their salaries come from tax dollars not ours.
USPS has the worst human rights record, worse than some third world countries, part of it needs to be privatized, this evil empire must die!
Right on WNYD!, keep denigrating your craft people!
Screw the voting!, it is not who votes that counts, it is who counts the votes, all right Josef Stalin!, we need a regime change in the USA and now !
All PM’s need to meet the Taliban or the fate of Saddam Hussein, hang till they almost decapitate you, also include the Inspection Service and the OIG Pigs, they deserve it to, for protecting management and setting up craft employees in the Western NT District, too bad the parking lots are not darker, oh well what difference does that make when going postal !
Again! Brothers and Sisters! Even if the House Republicans do nothing on Postal reform this year, We have the power to do something!
Vote all the clowns out of office come November! Get rid of the do nothing robbers! And let them know you are voting them OUT!
Politics, Parties and Pressure groups using the postal issue to further their own selfish political agenda. The USPS as the means of communication is history: post office had it need from the 18th-20th century. Advanced technology in communications in the 21st century has diminished the need to purchase a postage stamp place in the postal system and await a 2-3 day delivery time to a physical address is history. The means of communication in the 21st century is instant messaging via the Internet which has resulted in a decline in First Class mail volume which has created a massive decline in revenue. USPS place in American communication channel is delivering advertising sales paper or advertising bulk busiiness mail which results in low revenue and high distribution cost. Demographics has changed the need for small community post offices that in the 1950s were located in farming or mill communities but are now suburban community post offices that time has decreased the need to use for postal services.
Many of these officies have high salaried Postmasters that sell stamps and box mail which is clerk work at less pay. 6 day street delivery using 200,000 vehicles with increasing fuel cost and carrier workhour cost is totally a wasted cost. The USPS is loosing billions of dollars a quarter and yet politicans, craft and management unions refuse to adjust to meet the demand for the need for postal services. The supply of postal services exceed the demand for use which results in less revenue to meet cost. COST EFFECTIVE OERATIONS means nothing to top heavy management, craft and management unions and politicans who seek self gain promoting a loosing cause as USPS is presently structured.