Providing for Consideration of H.R. 22, Postal Accountability and Enchancement Act
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 22, POSTAL ACCOUNTABILITY AND ENHANCEMENT ACT -- (House of Representatives - July 26, 2005)
Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 380 and ask for its immediate consideration.
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Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Hastings), pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only.
This structured rule provides 1 hour of general debate, equally divided and controlled by the chairman and ranking minority member of the Committee on Government Reform, and waives all points of order against consideration of the bill. It provides that the amendment in the nature of a substitute recommended by the Committee on Government Reform now printed in the bill shall be considered as an original bill for the purpose of amendment and waives all points of order against the amendment in the nature of a substitute recommended by the Committee on Government Reform.
The rule makes in order only those amendments printed in the Committee on Rules report accompanying the resolution and provides that these amendments may be offered only in the order printed in the report, only by a Member designated in the report, and shall be considered as read. They shall be debatable for the time specified in the report equally divided and controlled by the proponent and an opponent, shall not be subject to amendment, and shall not be subject to a demand for division of the question in the House or in the Committee of the Whole.
Finally, the rule waives all points of order against the amendments printed in the report and provides one motion to recommit with or without instructions.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 22, the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, and this underlying rule. When I was first elected to Congress in 1996, I served on the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight's Postal Service Subcommittee, which was charged with the task of reforming our Nation's postal operations to make them more efficient, cost-effective, and responsive. And although I no longer serve on the committee or the subcommittee charged with the oversight of the U.S. Postal Service, my commitment to reforming the Postal Service has not decreased.
Today, for the first time in three decades, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Tom Davis), chairman of Committee on Government Reform; and the gentleman from New York (Mr. McHugh), my friend, have brought to the House floor a comprehensive bill that would vastly improve the United States Postal Service, and I would like to thank both of them for all the hard work that the Committee on Government Reform has invested in this legislation.
Since President Nixon signed the Postal Reorganization Act in 1970, the United States Postal Service has not significantly updated its fundamental operations. While this legislation helped to update the Postal Service and to move it from a bureaucracy subsidized by tax revenue to self-sufficiency, a market-based entity, the way that people communicate has changed dramatically over the last three decades, and the Postal Service must now evolve to meet the changing demands of consumers.
The Postal Service is a very large organization that sits at the center of a $900 billion industry, representing about 9 percent of America's GDP, that employs more than 9 million workers nationwide. It processes more than 200 billion pieces of mail to 130 million households and businesses every year, and it directly employs 700,000 people, making it the second largest employer in the country. If the Postal Service were a private company, it would rank 11th on the Fortune 500 in terms of revenue.
However, 21st century realities, including decreasing volume; insufficient revenue; mounting debts; and the rapid growth of electronic communications for advertising, bill payments, and information transfer present an enormous challenge to the Postal Service in fulfilling its mission to "provide postal services that bind the Nation together through the correspondence of the people, to provide access in all communities, and to offer prompt, reliable postal services at uniform prices."
H.R. 22 maps out a responsible and accountable future for the United States Postal Service that will provide increased oversight for its operations, renew its focus on its core mission of delivering the mail, and save as many as 1.5 million jobs in the private sector that rely on the Postal, and accomplishing all of this without imposing a significant new tax burden on every American who uses stamps.
This bill would transform today's Postal Rate Commission into the Postal Regulatory Commission and give it to the authority to ensure that the Postal Service as an efficient and responsible operation in the 21st Century environment exists. It would require the Postal Service to account for all of its costs in SCC-like financial disclosure statements and give the Regulatory Commission the authority to punish the Postal Service for any noncompliance. It would also subject the Postal Service to antitrust laws, require the Regulatory Commission to account for the advantages that its government status confers, and build these advantages into a competitive product that helps to raise the level playing field with private business.
H.R. 22 would renew the Postal Service's focus on its core mission also of collecting, sorting, transporting, and delivering the mail more efficiently, and to bar it from new nonpostal products and services already being provided efficiently by the private sector. It would also prevent a 2-cent postage rate increase this year with another even larger increase that might have been anticipated next year that would act as a significant drain and back-door tax on our growing economy.
According to estimates, if mail decreased by 10 percent, over 780,000 mailing industry jobs would also be at risk; and if decreased by 20 percent, over 1.5 million jobs would also be at risk.
As our economy continues to expand with 25 consecutive months of job gains adding over 3.7 million new jobs to payrolls, and payroll employment having increased by 2.1 over the year, we should not be adding artificial impediments to future job growth and expansion like a stamp price increase. Adding this new stealth tax on American families and businesses would simply accelerate the movement of mailers to other communications media, decreasing volumes at the Postal Service even further and exposing taxpayers to the unfunded obligations of the United States Postal Service.
I am very proud of the hard work that so many Members have put into reforming the United States Postal Service to ensure that it is a dynamic, market-based entity that provides uniform and universal service to America while preventing its status as a government entity from subsidizing its competition for providing goods and services already being supplied by the private sector.
I would personally like to thank the gentleman from New York (Mr. McHugh) and the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Tom Davis), our wonderful chairman, for their tireless efforts to improve the United States Postal Office.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
The gentleman from Florida (Mr. Hastings) has made some very good points, and that is that the work that has gone into this bill, while it has been some probably 10 years in the making, was done through strong leadership, it was done through strong bipartisan leadership, it was done not only with the negotiation of the United States Postal Service, its management and its unions, but also so many outside groups that had an influence in impacting a bill that was done properly.
A lot of that credit goes to the chairman of the Committee on Government Reform, who a long time ago decided that it was in the best interest of the economy of this country to make sure that a carefully crafted bill, a bipartisan bill that could be supported on this floor by members like the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Hastings) and the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Tom Davis), who had served on the postal committee many years ago with me, would be able to bring forth to this floor a good answer. I am very proud to support this bill.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Tom Davis).
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Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
A lot of the leadership that has been talked about, making sure that this bill is a carefully crafted bill, is true. But there are also a lot of people who played a big role in making sure that the elements and the people who are a part of the dialogue and a part of the things that were necessary to make sure this balanced bill was brought forward were important also.
Mr. Speaker, the gentlewoman from Michigan (Mrs. Miller), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs for the Committee on Government Reform, has played an integral role in making sure that not only her footprint was on this and hand print was on this but, also, in particular, that other people who had a vested interest, most of all the taxpayers of this country, were also involved.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Mrs. Miller).
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Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, as you know, this bill is about the taxpayer. It is also about high-tech areas that depend upon a Postal Service that works properly. And our next speaker is from one of those areas, a high-tech area that is important to this country in not only manufacturing, but also delivery of goods and products.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from West Virginia (Mrs. Capito).
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Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Today, we have had an opportunity to bring forth this postal bill with not only bipartisanship, but really some pats on the back to a lot of people who have been engaged in this issue for a long time, and perhaps none more diligent about this than the gentleman from New York (Mr. McHugh), our wonderful colleague. I think the way he has gone about this, Mr. Speaker, has been good, not only for this House but a credit to the men and women who have also been engaged in this.
I remember some 9 years ago as I went with a rural letter carrier down in Jeuitt, Texas, Stan Waltrip. I had a chance to go and deliver the mail with Stan and to see firsthand the kinds of, not only the people he came in contact with but the importance of doing this. So this bill is important that we have done this.
There are other people who have contributed to the success, rural letter carriers, certainly the postal carriers, letter carriers, those people who represent the Post Masters, the Financial Services Roundtable and many others. I would also like to thank the White House for their involvement. Three people in particular from the Leg Affairs office, Brian Conklin, Elan Liang, and Chris Frech, have been very diligent in making sure that this House and its Members are updated about the position of the White House.
Mr. Speaker, I would say this is a good piece of legislation. It is one that comes at a great time for this country. It is one that will spur the economy and make sure we are prepared for the future.
I ask my colleagues to please make sure they support this rule and also the underlying legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution.
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