Postal Accountability And Enhancement Act
POSTAL ACCOUNTABILITY AND ENHANCEMENT ACT -- (House of Representatives - December 08, 2006)
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Mrs. MALONEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I rise in strong support of H.R. 6407, the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act.
I want to congratulate the Government Reform Chairman, TOM DAVIS, Ranking Member Waxman, Representative JOHN MCHUGH from New York who has dedicated well over 11 years working on this, and DANNY DAVIS who led the effort in the minority, and their counterparts in the Senate for their hard work in getting this compromise bill to the floor prior to the adjournment.
The legislation before us will bring long overdue reforms to the operations of the postal service after almost 11 1/2 years of negotiations between the House, the Senate and the administration.
We reached an agreement on negotiated service agreements, work sharing, the rate cap and the authority of the Postal Regulatory Commission to design a new postal system. The $9 billion mailing industry is tremendously important to our economy. Had Congress failed to reach this compromise, the public and postal reliant businesses surely would have faced more frequent increases in postal rates in the near future.
This bill will help to keep rates more stable by releasing the funds from an escrow account to pay retiree health benefits.
Additionally, this relieves the Postal Service and postal customers of the $27 billion burden in military service payments by returning that responsibility to the Treasury. The legislation creates a new Postal Regulatory Commission with the authority to establish a modern system for postal rate regulation. The new PRC will improve the rate-setting process by reducing administrative burdens. As a result, consumers and postal-reliant businesses can expect a greater rate stability.
I represent a large portion of the magazine industry which is enormously important both for the economy of New York and the country. High costs have forced many magazines out of business, including Mademoiselle, Mode, Brill's Content, and Industry Standard, leaving many workers without jobs. I also represent many postal workers, some of the 700,000 postal workers who rely on a healthy Postal Service for their livelihoods.
We are hopeful that the legislation we passed today will satisfy many of the concerns of the postal employees, the postal-reliant businesses, and the U.S. Postal Service and consumers. With the passage of this legislation we can ensure the long-term viability of the Postal Service and the continuation of services on which this Nation relies.
Once again, I commend my colleagues and the staff of the Government Reform and Oversight Committee, particularly Denise Wilson, for their hard work and dedication, and Jen Keaton from my own staff for their efforts in completing this task and I urge my colleagues to support it.
Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I would reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, let me just again commend and congratulate Chairman Tom Davis, Ranking Member HENRY WAXMAN, and Mr. McHugh. And just say that TOM DAVIS and HENRY WAXMAN demonstrated the very best of leadership as they worked through this process. TOM was a great chairman; Mr. Waxman is going to become a great chairman in the next session, and he is what I call a Member's chairman. It has been a pleasure working with all of them. I urge passage.
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