Three weeks after hitting them with an injurious 6% rate hike, postal decision makers in Washington continue to enrage direct mailers. On January 17 it was Senators Tom Carper (D-DE) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) , whose re-draft of their Postal Reform Act would make the exigent increase permanent and add an annual 1% to the CPI cap.

Postal issues remain a moveable feast with reform bills still pending in both the House and the Senate. The Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) had put a $2.8 billion limit on additional funds collected by USPS due to the exigent increase, and mailers were hopeful that new postal legislation might remove the exigent increase entirely. Instead, the new draft of the PRA scheduled for markup this month in Carper’s Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee (HSGAC) would make the 4.3% exigent increase the baseline for future postal rate hikes. What’s more, it would remove the requirement that the PRC review rate increases, awarding full rate-setting power to the Postal Service.

Carper and Coburn, meanwhile, believe that more aggressive rate hikes are necessary to turn the tide at the Postal Service. “In recent years, as the Postal Service’s financial situation has rapidly deteriorated, most of the focus has been on efforts to cut costs such as facility closings, workforce reductions, and slowing down service. But to help the Postal Service survive and thrive over the long term, we need a more balanced approach,” an HSGAC spokesperson told Direct Marketing News. “Chairman Carper believes that a responsible and effective solution will require shared sacrifice from postal customers, postal management, and postal employees.”

via In a Revised Senate Postal Bill, Exigency Is Forever – Direct Marketing News.