June 17, 2013
By Neal Tepel
Washington, DC – On June 13, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) released what he termed a “discussion draft” of a possible postal reform bill that he hopes to introduce in the near future.
“This discussion draft has a number of major problems that need to be addressed before it is used as the basis of actual legislation,” NALC President Fredric Rolando said, noting how the draft includes many of the damaging and fundamental flaws that were included in H.R. 2309, Rep. Issa’s attempt at a postal reform measure in the last session of Congress.
For example, Issa’s draft calls for the immediate elimination of Saturday letter mail service, for taking away from 35 million Americans door-delivery of the mail and replacing it with cluster-box delivery, and for compromising the security of the mailbox by allowing access to non-federal employees.
“The NALC is disappointed that Chairman Issa did not take a fresher approach to postal reform with this discussion draft,” Rolando said. “However, we appreciate the chairman’s invitation to provide input to this legislation before it is formally introduced, and we welcome this opportunity to engage in discussions of this proposed bill with him, his colleagues on the Oversight Committee and the entire House of Representatives.” (Issa’s committee has jurisdiction over the U.S. Postal Service.)
“We are going to carefully go through this new draft in the coming days,” the president said, “and we hope that we will be able to work with the chairman on legislation to provide alternative approaches to postal reform that seek to modernize and strengthen the Postal Service—an agency with roots in the U.S Constitution—rather than to destroy it brick by brick.”
