Press release from Susan Collins, Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Ranking Member , R-Maine:
WASHINGTON, July 25 —U.S. Senator Susan Collins, Ranking Member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, today urged the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) to consider Congressional intent as it determines how closely proposed rate hikes must be linked to an exigent circumstance to warrant an increase above the rate of inflation.
The 2006 postal reform law, which Senator Collins authored, capped postal rate increases at the rate of inflation, but allowed a narrow exception for extraordinary or exceptional circumstances such as a terrorist attack or catastrophic natural disaster.
Senator Collins’ committee has jurisdiction over the U.S. Postal Service. In January, she filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to uphold the PRC’s unanimous decision to reject the Postal Service’s requested rate hikes, which on average, would have increased rates by four to six percent. The Court of Appeals largely agreed with the PRC’s and Senator Collins’ position, but remanded to the PRC the narrow question of how close the causal link must be between a proposed rate increase and the exigent circumstances used by the Postal Service to justify the increase.
“The economy and technology are affecting the Postal Service and, indeed, most businesses. But in writing postal reform legislation in 2006, my intention was not to permit rate increases above the inflation-based cap as relief from chronic, ordinary, or unexceptional circumstances and general Postal Service red ink,” said Senator Collins. “I urge the PRC to require that the nexus between the exigent circumstances and the proposed rate hike be close. This is necessary to preserve the stability and predictability of rates that the 2006 law sought to establish.
“Excessive rate increases coupled with service cutbacks will only drive customers away. The Postal Service needs to redouble its efforts to cut costs, develop new services to increase volume, re-invent its business model, and work with the Administration to remedy an overpayment to the federal retirement fund. I will continue to press the Administration and the Postal Service on these vital reforms.”
She was the author, and it was one of the last things that passed by the majority Repubes in December 06 after they got hammered in November. Their five year business plan to destroy the post office is working great. The 2006 Postal Accountability Act is almost the same thing as Carolyn Gallaghers Embracing the Future who was appointed by President Bush also appointed her in 2003 to serve on the President’s Commission on the United States Postal Service, which was charged to explore ways to modernize this venerable institution. The Commission submitted its report, “Embracing The Future” in July 31, 2003 and it became the basis of legislation that came before the second session of the 108th Congress. The deeper you go the deeper the Repugs BS.
Senator Collins may have authored the original bill, but like most laws, it was amended and then voted on by Congress before it became a law. What is important is the intent of CONGRESS in passing the law, not the intent of a single senator, even if she did originate the legislation.
our postal rate is lowest in the world and any other compatiter
if postal rate should increse ,and post office need stimulate pkg,five days delivery solve some problem
AND, least expensive postage rates in the world. Is the whole purpose of life to enrich the already richest 2% and their corporate managers? Sen Collins-do you realize that all the overtime forced on carriers produces injuries, and your Republican friends would rather bully, intimidate and harass injured workers than give pay for their treatment/.recovery. Personal responsibility for your actions? Ever heard of that? Your oversight of USPS does not include ergonomic studies regarding work conditions and overtime; therefore you are responsible for outcomes that include injuries. Ask your priest, rabbi, or minister about it.
Maybe someone should remind Senator Collins that the postal service wouldn’t be asking for these rate increases if the bill she authored in 2006 did not saddle it with a $5 billion dollar mandate to pre-fund retiree health care benefits. Just maybe someone could remind her that the postal service is saddled with a mandate not borne by any other organization (government or private). Unlike Congress the postal service paid its bill and on time and was able to request rate increases consistent with the rate of inflation. It was only after Senator Collin and Bush reform act that saddled the postal service with the $5B mandate that these deficits began to incurr. The current Postmaster and his predecessor said without the prefunding mandate the postal service would have been showing a profit despite the decline in mail volume and the effects of the recession. Yes, Susan Collins can play ignorant to the major cause of the postal service deficits just as she and her repugnicant twisted sisters claim ignorant on the cause of the national debt. However, facts are stubborn things as once spoken. They have a way of coming back irregardless of how they are bent.