In an exclusive interview with Direct Marketing News, Deputy Postmaster General Ron Stroman expressed a firm belief that postal reform can be enacted by Congress in the coming months and that a 4.3% exigent rate increase can be averted. Extraordinary forces are aligning in the turbulent 113th Congress, noted the Capitol Hill veteran, that favor quick passage of postal reform

You’ve got the chairman and the ranking member of both [postal] authorizing committees saying that they want reform and they want it now. You have the Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader saying they want reform this year,” said Stroman, who once served as a staff director on the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee that recently introduced a new postal reform bill. “That’s the first time that’s happened over the last two years. You’ve got a level of bipartisanship that is hard to come by in Washington these days.”

Stroman said the postal governors’ hands were forced on the exigent increase in the absence of legislation that would remove the Postal Service’s debilitating obligation to pre-fund retirees’ healthcare. “When you look at the statement made by the board in requesting the increase,” Stroman said, “what they signaled is that, if legislation got enacted by the end of the year, they would reconsider an exigent case going forward.”

Deputy PMG: “Exigent Increase Not a Done Deal” – Direct Marketing News.