Legislative Updates
TOTAL DONATIONS:Indiana-Kerry Dalrymple .$ 5027.00
Florida-Annette Read ..$ 4404.00
North Carolina-Van Heath ..$ 4069.00
New York-Fran Ross $ 3625.00
Wisconsin-Dennis Nelson ...$ 3536.00
TOTAL BY DELEGATE:1. New Hampshire-Carol Bjornson $ 250.25
2. Oklahoma-Walker Allen .$ 238.10
3. West Virginia-Margie Montgomery $ 146.30
4. South Carolina-Charles Mackey $ 136.96
5. Kentucky-Ned Burge ..$ 125.04
.TOTAL ...........$ 66,484.00
The Senate Appropriations Bill (S 1282) was reported out of the full Senate Committee on June 24, 1999 with no amendments or provisions harmful to the U.S. Postal Service. Last year Postal employee organizations fought a battle with UPS over provisions designed to restrict the Postal Service's growing business in international parcels. The Senate passed the Treasury Postal Appropriations Bill with no harmful legislation to the USPS.In the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-KS) introduced an amendment to the bill, HR 2490, preventing the USPS from implementing new commercial mail receiving agency regulations. Mail Boxes Etc. and many small businesses claim the new addressing regulations impose unnecessary costs on them (such as having to reprint letterhead, envelopes, business cards, invoices and other forms). The Postal Inspection Service contends the changes are necessary to prevent the increasing problem of "identity theft." The amendment was defeated by a one-vote margin. Afterwards the committee reported the bill to the full House of Representatives and has passed with no harmful legislation to the USPS.
The House adopted the conference report on September 15, 1999 and the Senate cleared the conference report on September 16, 1999. The next likely action will be President Clinton signing the bill.
Some rural letter carriers have been mistakenly placed in the wrong retirement system. This mistake prevented them from participating in the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). In March, the House of Representatives passed HR 416, which is an extremely costly piece of legislation to rectify this problem. Senator Thad Cochran, (R-MS), introduced S 1232 in June to correct the problem and it passed out of the Governmental Affairs Committee on August 3, 1999. Senator Cochran is Chairman of the Governmental Affairs subcommittee on international security, proliferation and federal services which includes the Postal Service. This bill will be more acceptable to the Administration and could pass into law. The House, Senate, and Administration must arrive at a mutual agreement before it can become law.
The President unveiled his proposal to stabilize Medicare for the long run in June. It contained a voluntary drug benefit which Medicare eligible citizens could opt into upon payment of half of the cost of the benefit. This proposal would not affect rural carriers who are in the rural carrier benefit plan or another federal employee health benefit plan which already offers a prescription drug benefit. NRLCA had explained to the White House staff that many federal employee health benefit plans have a prescription drug plan. Therefore, any mandatory Medicare drug plan proposal would be taking an existing program away from federal employees. No current action.
Rep. Constance Morella (R-MD) introduced a bill that would allow federal and postal employees to contribute to the TSP immediately upon becoming federal hires, and would permit employees who participated in a qualified retirement plan before becoming a federal or postal employee to roll those funds into their TSP accounts. The House of Representatives approved HR 208. It awaits consideration by the committee on Governmental Affairs in the US Senate, immediate action not foreseen.
The House Committee on Government Reform continues to postpone a markup of HR 22, Rep. McHugh's (R-NY) postal reform bill. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), ranking committee member, has introduced his own postal reform bill in the nature of a substitute, and is soliciting support from the postal unions and management associations. Waxman's amendment does not include creation of the Private Law Corporation (PLC) the Rep. McHugh favors. Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-OH) has also prepared an amendment to eliminate the PLC and alter McHugh's proposed ratemaking process. Currently the legislative proposal is stalemated with none of the three sides having sufficient votes to pass the legislation in the full committee.
The National Rural Letter Carriers' Association has offered our members the option of long-term care insurance since 1993. President Clinton and Members of Congress are seeking to create such a program for Federal and Postal Employees. If Uncle Sam sets up a plan for members of the federal civilian (and possibly the military) family, the number of people covered by long-term care insurance could shoot up overnight.Currently, rural letter carriers that have opted for coverage are included in the 6 million Americans who have such long-term care coverage. Typical group plans offer several levels of premiums (based on a person's age at sign-up time) and benefits. Premiums remain constant, but benefits often are increased annually.
Rep. Constance A. Morella (R-MD) has introduced a bill that would enlarge the pool of eligibles considerably by including members of the military family that would keep the premiums at a lower cost. The long-term care legislation awaits consideration in committee, but we foresee no action on this bill.
The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 requires a series of increases in the amount of money federal and postal employees contribute toward their retirement. The employee contribution would increase from 7.0 percent of salary to 7.5 percent by 2002.· An additional 0.25% in 1999
· An additional 0.15% in 2000 (0.40%)
· An additional 0.10% in 2001 (0.50%)In 2002 this temporary 0.50 percent increase will sunset and the employee contribution will return to 7.0 percent.
In 1995, Congress and the President were intent upon ending decades of red ink for the Federal Budget and balancing the budget. Congress presented several unfair choices to federal/postal employee organizations as our contribution to their budget balancing effort. Congress threatened to permanently raise the age and years of service needed to be retirement eligible or to change the computation from high three years of government service to high five years of government service. To avoid the permanent change to the high-five concept, NRLCA agreed instead to the temporary increase in the employee retirement contribution-the less painful alternative. However, the budget is now balanced and the deficit is on the verge of being eliminated.
Currently, there is no action to terminate this provision in Congress. NRLCA expects this provision to expire in 2002 and it absolutely should not be extended.
Last Update: September 21, 1999
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Rural Letter Carriers Association. All Rights Reserved.
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Copyright © 1996-2000 National
Rural Letter Carriers Association. All Rights Reserved.
Site by New Connections, Inc.