Nonprofit Postal Rate Relief Legislation
NEWS UPDATES

October 30, 2000 Update
President Signs Bill Into Law; Victory Declared!

The President signed S. 2686 into law on Friday, October 27, ending an almost year-long effort by the Alliance and others to secure discounted postal rates for nonprofit mailers.  For details on what the new law does for nonprofit mailers, visit our alert page.

Thanks to all the nonprofit mailers out there who took the time to write to their Senators and Congresswo/men -- your voices were heard loud and clear on Capitol Hill!

October 11, 2000 Update
House Approves Bill

The House of Representatives approved passage of S. 2686 tonight at 7:16pm.  Accepting the Senate version of the bill (vs. the House version, HR 4636) for expediency, the Senate approved the bill under unanimous consent.  This is a huge victory for the Alliance and all nonprofit mailers, as the dwindling days of the congressional calendar were of grave concern for S. 2686 advocates. 

October 6, 2000, 4:20pm Update
Senate Approves S. 2686

At 3:35pm today the United States Senate approved passage of S. 2686, legislation drafted by the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers, the USPS and others that is designed to protect preferred postal rates for nonprofit mailers.

The bill now moves to the House of Representatives for consideration before the 106th Congress is set to adjourn Sine Die. Many Congress-watchers expect the lawmakers to complete business by the end of next week, perhaps as early as Thursday, October 12.

September 27, 2000, 6:30pm Update
S. 2686 Clears Senate Committee

At 4:45pm today the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs cleared S.2686 for full Senate floor consideration. The Senate is likely to take up the measure under the "unanimous consent" calendar sometime early next week.

Phone calls, e-mails and visits to Senate offices to express support for the bill would be most appropriate. We now have 9 sponsors of the bill -- is your Senator signed on?

September 27, 2000 Update
Grassroots Efforts Working! New Co-Sponsors Added

In the past few weeks, S. 2686 has gained four new co-sponsors: Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI), and Sen. Max Cleland (D-GA). HR 4636 has gained eight new co-sponsors in September alone: Rep. Earl Hilliard (D-AL), Rep. Owen Pickett (D-VA), Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), Rep. Rod Blagojevich (D-IL), Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA), Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Rep. Thomas Barrett (D-WI).

Thanks to all the nonprofits out there who have taken the time to communicate their concern to their elected representatives -- it makes all the difference!

September 1, 2000 Update
Will Senate Act First?

While nothing is definite, we expect that the Senate bill, S. 2686, will be the first out of the gate when Congress returns to work next week. The Senate Subcommitte that needs to move S. 2686 is governed by its two chief co-sponsors: Chairman Thad Cochran (R-MS) and Ranking Minority Member Daniel Akaka (D-HI). Once the Subcommittee sends its approval to the full Committee, chaired by Senator Fred Thompson (R-TN), the bill will go to full Committee markup. A September markup is expected, but not yet scheduled. If you have not done so already, we strongly urge you to contact your Senators and Representative and ask them to help move our nonprofit postal relief bill.

August 3, 2000 Update
Congress Goes Out for Recess

It's going to go down to the wire. Congress packed up their bags and left Washington last week without taking action on any of the three bills that contain nonprofit postal rate relief provisions. The House and Senate are slated to return for an action-packed month after Labor Day before heading home for the elections.

That means that nonprofit mailers have a very limited time in which to press for passage of nonprofit rate reform legislation before the Postal Rate Commission (PRC) must submit its recommendations on the current USPS rate hike proposal.

In the closing days before the August recess, the House debated and passed two legislative measures dealing with the Postal Service.

HR 4437, co-sponsored by Chairman John McHugh (R-NY) and Ranking Member Chaka Fattah (D-PA) of the House Subcommittee on the Postal Service, reauthorized the popular Breast Cancer Research Semi-Postal stamp and provided for methods to approve new semi-postal stamps.  The House also cleared the Treasury-Postal Service Appropriations bill, HR 4871.  Neither bill contained any language addressing the pending postal ratesetting crisis faced by nonprofit mailers.

July 19, 2000 Update
Two new co-sponsors sign on to bill

We're pleased to announce that S. 2686 has picked up the formal support of two more Members of Congress. The Ranking Minority Member of the full Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), announced his support yesterday, joining Friday's addition Senator Daniel K. Inouye (D-HI) as a new co-sponsor of S. 2686. If you live in Connecticut or Hawaii, please send thank you notes to these Senate supporters (e-mails are linked to names).

July 14, 2000 Update
PMG Reinforces Support for S. 2686 During Senate Hearing

Yesterday, during a Senate oversight hearing, PMG Bill Henderson demonstrated his unequivocal support for S. 2686. The Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on International Security, Proliferation and Federal Services, Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS), oversaw the annual hearing on the Postal Service's health. A brief but positive exchange occurred during the question and answer period:

Chairman Cochran: Senator Akaka and I have introduced a bill, S. 2686, which is intended to improve the process of establishing postal rates for nonprofit and reduced rate mailers. The bill would establish a structured relationship between nonprofit and commercial postal rates. Some of these nonprofit groups are worried that they will see another substantial postal rate increase unless the current ratesetting procedure is changed. Do you believe, General, that changes in the law are appropriate to avoid unpredictable rate changes for nonprofits? And do you support the adoption of S. 2686?

PMG Henderson: Absolutely. We think it's essential to the health of nonprofits to pass that piece of legislation.

So why isn't the bill moving?

It's been a month since the Senate and House bills were introduced (S. 2686/HR 4636) but neither side of the Hill has taken the next step and "marked up" the bill.

The nonprofit community unfortunately has no time to spare. The Postal Rate Commission (PRC) needs to know if the bill has become law by the time it issues a final recommendation on the current rate case -- expected in October. And Congress' working days are dwindling in number. In August, Members will be at home in their districts and at the political conventions. When Congress returns in September, the priority will be on finishing only the most important tasks, then racing back home to campaign.

If we get left behind, then there will be no other options to save the nonprofit Periodicals rate from disappearing in January.

That's why the Alliance hopes to make further progress in the remaining two weeks in July. But we need your help to convince Congress that our bill is not only important, but is urgent. Please visit our action alert page for how you can help by writing to your elected officials today!

June 12, 2000 Update
Nonprofit Relief Bill Introduced in House; HR 4636 Mirrors Senate Version of Postal Rate Relief

On Monday, June 12, Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-PA), the Ranking Minority Member of the House Subcommittee on the Postal Service, introduced HR 4636, the Nonprofit Relief Act of 2000.

"My legislation is identical to legislation introduced in the Senate, S. 2686, on June 7, 2000," said Fattah. S. 2686 was introduced on the Senate side by Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) and Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI) (see below or see Alliance Report 00/17, June 8).

The language is also similar to provisions contained in HR 22, the Postal Modernization Act sponsored by Chairman John McHugh (R-NY) of the House Subcommittee on the Postal Service.

"The measure will protect nonprofit or preferred rate mailers from double-digit rate increases," said Fattah. "By locking in the current rate relations between nonprofit and commercial postage rates, we will protect all categories of nonprofit mail from future rate shock."

"On behalf of local charities, hospitals, churches, educators, arts organizations, nonprofit publications, and a host of others, the original cosponsors and I, invite my colleagues to protect nonprofit mailers and support this bill."

Mr. Fattah is joined as a sponsor of HR 4636 by Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Ranking Minority Member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Treasury, Postal Service and General Government, and Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL) and Rep. Major Owens (D-NY), both members of the Subcommittee on the Postal Service. Next steps include being deliberated by the House Subcommittee on the Postal Service.

To learn more about the bill and what you can do, click here.

June 8, 2000 Update
Alliance-Supported Nonprofit Rate Relief Bill Introduced by Senate Chairman Thad Cochran

Just in time? Today, as we near the half-way point of the current postal rate case, nonprofit ratemaking legislative reforms have finally been formally introduced on Capitol Hill.

Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS), the Chairman, and Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI), the Ranking Minority Member of the Senate Subcommittee with jurisdiction over the Postal Service, yesterday introduced S. 2686, an act designed to grant relief to preferred rate mailers.

"We are extremely grateful to Chairman Cochran, Senator Akaka and the Members and staff of the Subcommittee for their support of the technical corrections necessary to protect nonprofit mailers in the current rate case," said Mark Silbergeld of the Consumers Union.

"The nonprofit community must quickly get out the word - S. 2686 is an urgent piece of legislation that will protect preferred postal rates for nonprofit fundraisers and publishers," added Alliance President Chris Cleghorn of Easter Seals.

To learn more about the bill and what you can do, click here.

May 11, 2000 Update
Nonprofit mailers, commercial mailers and USPS officials have finally come to an agreement on legislative language that will address the ratesetting shortcomings in the current rate case.

Earlier this week, the National Federation of Nonprofits (NFN) announced that they "will not oppose" the legislation aimed at protecting preferred postal rates for nonprofit publishers and fundraisers.

The Alliance, the Direct Marketing Association, PostCom, Magazine Publishers of America and the US Postal Service worked closely to craft legislative language addressing shortcomings in the rate case proposal.

The agreed-upon approach was supported by all of the parties except the NFN. After two recent and very frank discussions between the interested parties and Capitol Hill staff, the NFN has signaled that they "will not oppose" the proposal.

The NFN had been promoting an approach that would "roll back" nonprofit rates. While Alliance representatives were supportive of the NFN idea to roll back nonprofit rates to mirror the 1998 relationship with commercial rate mail, there was great opposition to the necessary cost shift of $170 million by others in the mailing community.

Politics is the art of the possible. The agreement by the NFN now makes nonprofit rate relief a very real possibility on Capitol Hill.

The framework of the proposal is aimed to do the following:

• Set nonprofit Periodical rates at 95% of the commercial counterpart rate. Excluding the advertising portion, nonprofit mailers would receive a 5% discount off the commercial rate.
• Set the revenue per piece for nonprofit Standard A mail to reflect a 40% discount over the revenue per piece received by commercial Standard A mail.
• Set Library rates at 95% of the rates for the Special subclass of Standard B mail.

A note of caution: this is just Step #1. The draft language will now be inserted in HR 22, the Postal Modernization Act.

Chairman John McHugh (R-NY) of the House Subcommittee on the Postal Service continues to work with mailers and the USPS to liberate HR 22 from a relatively small handful of opponents to the bill who have stalled its progress on the Hill. For background information and links on HR 22, see our 1999 updates.

The Alliance continues to urge our members and friends to visit elected representatives on Capitol Hill to impart the urgency of approving necessary nonprofit legislative reforms in this Session of Congress.

• Click here for a directory of elected officials.
• If you mail at the nonprofit ECR Standard A or nonprofit Periodical rates, this is especially imperative legislation. Unless legislative reforms are passed this year, the preferred, nonprofit Periodical rate will disappear and rate increases for nonprofit Enhanced Carrier Route (ECR) mail will near 40%.