Postal reform commission may be named this week

Postal Service officials say the Bush administration may be about to end months of speculation by naming a presidential commission to study the agency's tenuous future.

An announcement could come as early as Dec. 4, according to agency sources. Another date being floated is Dec. 10.

"A commission would be very well received," said Robert McLean, executive director of the Arlington, Va.-based Mailers Council, the mailing industry's largest trade association. "Just about everyone is on board with the idea of creating a commission. We need something to look at the long-term sustainability of the agency. There are a lot of people in the mailing industry who don't think the Postal Service can survive another decade" under the status quo.

White House officials declined to comment, other than to say that they are studying the idea of a commission and find it "intriguing." However, sources interviewed for this story said they were asked to supply the administration with suggestions for potential commission appointees and staff. None would identify the names they provided.

The push for a presidential commission has been gaining momentum since this summer, when postal reform legislation (H.R. 4970) died in the House Government Reform Committee.

Lacking a legislative vehicle, reformers-including the mailing industry, members of Congress and current and former Postal Service officials-have been pressing the administration to step in and appoint a commission. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, introduced legislation (S. 2754) late last year which would have created a presidential commission. She is due to take over the reins of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee next year. The committee oversees the Postal Service.

The Postal Service's largest labor union-the American Postal Workers Union-opposes a commission.

"It's a bad political move," said William Burrus, APWU president. "It's unlikely to have any positive impact on the Postal Service. The only purpose is to lay the foundation for weakening universal service. A commission can't generate more mail volume."

Universal service-the requirement that the Postal Service deliver mail to every address in the nation at a uniform rate-is at the core of any debate over the agency's future. For the past few years, the growth in the volume of mail sent has slowed considerably. At the same time, nearly 2 million new addresses have been added to mail routes each year. Mailers worry that without reform, the agency will have to continually increase rates in order to cover its costs. Burrus said that Congress, not a commission, is the place to debate any changes to the Postal Service.

A commission can help get such a debate started, said Murray Comarow, the executive director of the Kappel Commission, which made a series of recommendations in 1968 that laid the groundwork for what became the modern-day Postal Service. If a commission is formed, it has to put everything on the table, including universal service and possible privatization of mail services, Comarow said.