FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 17, 1999
Release No. 40

CHANGES MAKE POSTAL REFORM GOOD FOR INDUSTRY, AMERICA, POSTMASTER GENERAL TELLS MAILERS CONVENTION

SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Postmaster General William J. Henderson today renewed his support of Congressman John McHugh’s Postal Modernization Act of 1999 (H.R. 22) in remarks to 8,000 major mailers.

"All along, I have consistently said postal management was committed to working with Congressman McHugh to bring about progressive change. Today, I want you to know postal management wholeheartedly supports H.R. 22," he said at the opening session of National Postal Forum, a four-day mailing industry trade show here.

"Our principal goal," said Henderson, "has been to gain pricing flexibility so we can serve you better. H.R. 22 will do that. It also protects and ensures universal service for the American people."

Henderson added that last Friday McHugh agreed to principles and language which would assure the level of pricing flexibility management has been working toward for more than four years. He credited McHugh, who is chairman of the Government Reform Subcommittee on the Postal Service, for tackling an issue as large and controversial as postal reform.

"Without the chairman’s flexibility and vision, postal reform would still be something the mailing industry would discuss at trade shows like this," continued Henderson. "Now, I am convinced we will have something we can all look toward re-energizing the mailing community for the 21^st Century."

Since H.R. 22 was reintroduced in the new Congress last January, postal management has been working with the subcommittee toward designing progressive language to move the mailing industry forward, while providing the Postal Service with competitive pricing and product freedoms.

Accordingly, as the complex bill moves from the subcommittee to the full Committee on Government Reform for vote, expected sometime in the next few weeks, it will carry modified language in six areas:

• Clarified Negotiated Service Agreement provisions that could provide mailers with discounts and premium services.
• Equal mark-up for competitive products – international transportation costs explicitly excluded and Postal Regulatory Commission to consider unique or disproportionate operating costs, e.g. the Priority Mail Processing Centers.
• Pricing noncompetitive products with inflation-based price caps and business and marketplace flexibility.
• Clarified provisions on the Competitive Products Fund annual remittance to the Postal Service fund.
• Competitive Products Fund granted a five-year transition period with access to market-rate credit from the Federal Financing Bank.
• Federal Tort Claims Act to reflect the Postal Service’s integrated operational structures.

In other remarks at the Forum, Henderson committed to efforts at cost cutting to keep postage rates competitive in the marketplace. "This is not a diet, but a change in lifestyle for postal management so that we can keep the promise of affordable rates and high quality service."

He also touched on postal management’s discussion of an Internet strategy to facilitate the growth of e-commerce throughout America.

"There’s going to be a need for a residential delivery system that’s cost effective, that’s low price, and that doesn’t have a surcharge," Henderson said.

One way, he continued, was by developing an Internet address to match each physical address that is maintained in the Postal Service’s Address Management directory, while maintaining high privacy standards. "As the nation’s trusted third-party provider, the Postal Service is uniquely qualified to add value to developing e-commerce," he said.

"It’s a doable notion, and we’re committed to it, " Henderson added.

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