Copyright 1999 The Houston Chronicle Publishing Company
The Houston Chronicle
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May 18, 1999, Tuesday 3 STAR EDITION
SECTION: A; Pg. 18
LENGTH:
508 words
HEADLINE: POSTAL SERVICE;
Should stay out
of unfair competition with private sector
SOURCE: Staff
BODY:
Despite the occasional wisecrack or joke,
most people think the U.S. Postal Service is doing a good job of delivering the
mail.
The public's sentiment about the Postal Service results from its
long tradition of public service.
Whether it is serving a big customer
or a little customer, the Postal Service fulfills its important mission by
delivering mail everywhere, all the time and without discrimination.
The
Postal Service treats everyone equally, or equally by categories. That is and
has been the Postal Service's traditional mission.
But this approach
toward public service could change for the worse if Congress doesn't kill
pending legislation.
The Postal Modernization Act,
which is scheduled before the House Government Reform Committee
this week, would enable the Postal Service to compete more
freely with the private sector, including the ability to give favored mailers
better rates.
We're all for competition, competition within the private
sector. But the government should rarely, if ever, be in competition with
private enterprise and taxpaying citizens, because the playing field is so
seldom level in such cases. And this would be no exception.
Big mailers
could be favored over smaller mailers under the proposed legislation, House
Resolution 22. With the Postal Service's increased ability to cut special deals
with favored customers, trade publications, greeting card manufacturers, banks,
religious organizations, newspapers and parcel companies could be the losers.
For one thing, it would not be fair competition if the Postal Service
were given the ability to control its rates and make its own contracts with each
customer. That would give favored customers special treatment, such as better
rates, to the disadvantage of their smaller, nonfavored competitors.
HR
22 would ease the Postal Service's ability to subsidize junk mail by First Class
Mail through the shifting of overhead costs. Although the Postal Service has
done such cost-shifting in the past, it is wrong. Such cost-shifting should not
be made easier.
HR 22 would also allow the Postal Service to buy private
companies in order to better compete with the private sector.
The
proposed legislation also waters down the existing neutral oversight of the
Postal Rate Commission regarding postal rates.
The Postal Rate
Commission currently has to approve rates before they go into effect. Postal
rate commissioners are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
The idea is that the commissioners have an independent and detached view of the
Postal Service.
But HR 22 would take a lot of the power to set rates
away from the Postal Rate Commission and place it in the hands of the Postal
Service.
No good can come of a bill that enables the Postal Service to
go picking and choosing in the market place. This is never the appropriate role
of government.
HR 22 and such notions should be rejected by Congress.
The Postal Service should not ignore its tradition of public service to get into
unfair competitive service.
TYPE: editorial
opinion
LOAD-DATE: May 19, 1999
