Postal Reform: A Long Way
From Those Early, Rosy Days

Burrus Update #11-05, Aug. 5, 2005

The latest chapter of the long-running saga of postal reform began with repeated pronouncements that the USPS business model would be unable to sustain a sound Postal Service in the 21st century. We were inundated with statistics detailing the perils that would confront the nation’s mail system if reform legislation was not enacted. To some it became a crusade.

Key congressional leaders accepted assertions by postal officials and influential constituents about the looming danger, and developed legislation to address their concerns. The large mailers were outspoken advocates for a new law, because they viewed it as a means to control their postage costs. Others in the mailing community adopted the hyperbole of reform and repeatedly informed the world that if postal reform legislation were adopted, salvation would be close at hand.

Well, much has changed since the rosy days when postal reform replaced sliced bread as the greatest idea in the history of mankind (at least in the mailing community). The USPS Board of Governors has issued a carefully-crafted statement explaining “the extreme difficulties the Postal Service would have meeting consumers’ needs in the event new legislation were enacted that was revenue neutral and that at the same time gave the Board very limited authority to govern the organization as an efficient business enterprise.”

The White House has demanded that any postal reform bill be “revenue neutral,” and the House and Senate bills limit the Board’s authority to govern the organization.

Now that we are on the brink of realizing the dreams of those who cried from the mountaintop for “reform,” the very agency that they are purporting to save is saying, “thanks, but no thanks.” In fact, postal management is now saying that if there were no reform legislation they would do just fine. What happened to the imminent demise of a $900 billion business that represents 9 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product?

What are these people smoking? Everyone wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die. Those who purported to be saviors of the United States Postal Service evidently wanted reform, but only their own brand of reform. Postal management wanted reform as long as the USPS received a monetary windfall and they retained control; large mailers wanted reform only if they were assured their postage costs would be reduced, and some postal unions and associations wanted reform as long as their rights and opportunities were left unchanged.

As we have previously warned: Be careful what you ask for.

William Burrus
President

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