Distribution Directions Vol 9 No 9 Obama Addresses USPS Finances, 6-Day Delivery, USPS Issue Report, Union Repeal of PAEA

President Obama is set to present a special Valentine’s Day gift to the US Postal Service this year, in the form of assistance in his latest Budget. The struggling USPS needs to address financial problems that saw it posting an $8.5 billion loss last year, with commentators predicting a $6.5 billion loss this year – and possible insolvency. But the chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission revealed that she had been told by White House officials that some assistance will come in the President’s Budget for the 2012 fiscal year, which is due to be announced later this month. “I did have a meeting with representatives of the OMB in the White House,” Ruth Goldway said at the Commission’s latest open meeting, “who indicated to me… that there will be something in the President’s Budget on February 14 that deals with major financial concerns in the Postal Service.”

Source: Postal Reporter News Blog

The Future of 6-Day Delivery

The 112th Congress may consider the elimination of a mail delivery day as part of a larger debate over the future of U.S Postal Service PS. Click here to read the Congressional Research Service report that examines the history of six-day mail delivery and analyzes the potential effects of reducing USPS delivery from six to five days. The report examines legislative options, including bills that were introduced in the 111th Congress. Congress may choose to continue placing the six-day delivery provision in appropriations legislation. If six-day delivery continues, USPS would have to find other ways to increase revenue or reduce delivery costs in order to bridge USPS’s recurring budget shortfall.

Report Offers Broad Look at USPS Issues

When you’re an American institution saddled with a business model from the last century and hemorrhaging billions of dollars a year, it never hurts to get the high-altitude view of your challenges. That’s what the U.S. Postal Service’s inspector general aims to provide in a newly released report examining “fundamental questions” for the agency’s future. Those questions include whether the Postal Service ought to keep its letter and mailbox monopolies; whether it should be allowed to expand into non-postal lines of business; and whether it should be considered a profit-driven business or part of the national infrastructure. Particularly thought-provoking is the discussion of the Postal Service’s role—and whether it can keep playing that role—as a stepping stone to the middle class for people without college degrees. For anyone with an interest in the business of mail, it’s all worth a look.

Union Tells USPS to Repeal Portion of PAEA

According to the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) repealing a provision of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA) is “so critical to the welfare of the Postal Service” that it should be the exclusive focus of a report to the president and Congress on the effectiveness of the law. The provision, which requires the Postal Service to pre-fund health benefits, costs the Postal Service more than $5 billion annually and has driven the USPS to the brink of insolvency. There is a “broad consensus among postal industry stakeholders that the most urgent need” for reform of the PAEA is the pre-funding mandate. No other private company or government agency is forced to bear such a burden.

Source: APWU

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