The House Oversight Committee on June 15th unveiled a discussion draft postal reform bill. In a press conference, five key Committee members, including Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT-3rd) and Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-MD-7th), explained the draft bill’s core elements. The bill will be marked up in committee in about two weeks, then introduced so it will be ready when Congress is back in session.

The bill seeks to compromise the baked-in exigency argument between the mailing industry and USPS management, slicing the 4.3% to 2.15%. That increase would presumably go into effect next January, along with the annual CPI increase, bringing the total increase (based on current CPI) to just shy of 3%.

While the bill itself calls for additional rate hikes for “loss-making classes,” an accompanying summary also written by the Committee refers to “loss-making monopoly products.” The Standard Flats product is under water, the Standard Mail class is not. However, at some time during the process, the language in the bill may be adjusted to include “products” and/or “categories,” which would then bring in catalogs.

The ACMA will stay engaged in the process and do the best job possible to optimize the end result. On behalf of its catalog members, the ACMA is concerned that getting no bill passed before the end of the 114^th Congress will come back to haunt us in the 10-year review at the PRC taking place next year. For further information, The Dingley Press encourages you to contact Paul Miller at the ACMA, 914-669-8391 pmiller@catalogmailers.org .

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