Postal Accountablility And Enhancement Act
POSTAL ACCOUNTABILITY AND ENHANCEMENT ACT -- (House of Representatives - December 08, 2006)
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Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I might consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this landmark postal reform bill. Members of the House have worked for over a decade to reform this important part of our national communications system and our economy. I am indeed pleased to serve in the Congress that is making this reform a reality.
I want to commend and congratulate Chairman Tom Davis and Ranking Member Henry Waxman for their tremendous commitment and dedication to making this truly a bipartisan effort and for the tenacious way in which they have worked to bring us to this point this evening.
I also want to commend Representative McHugh who has been the point person for the Republican side of the aisle on this matter for more than 10 years, who has stayed with it, stuck with it, and one of the reasons that we are here today is because of his tenacious work.
I also want to thank all of the stakeholders, the unions, the mailers and others, who are greatly affected.
I want to thank the Board of Governors and the Postmaster General, Mr. Potter, for their willingness to work with us.
And I want to think the other body, the Members of the Senate who were willing to negotiate, to engage in the give-and-take that is so necessary to make bipartisan, bicameral legislation a reality.
This bill is a prime example of bipartisan negotiation and collaboration. It is a compromise that will modernize the postal system and help it remain healthy and affordable well into the 21st century.
I represent much of the city of Chicago, one of the primary postal hubs in the Midwest with over 12,000 postal employees who deliver mail daily to 1.2 million homes and businesses in the Chicago area. I also represent numerous printing and mailing companies that rely upon the movement of mail. Therefore, ensuring a healthy postal service is a key issue of great concern to me.
This bill has many highlights. It provides for ratemaking flexibility, rate stability, universal service, high quality standards, and collective bargaining.
In addition, I am pleased that the bill advances fair business practices related to employees who are women and/or racial minorities. For example, I am pleased that it includes a study on the representation of women and minority members in supervisory and management positions within the postal service. It is important to understand how well the postal service is doing in opening up its senior positions to groups who historically have not had that kind of access.
The bill goes even further by requiring measures to incorporate the affirmative action and equal opportunity criteria into the performance appraisals of senior supervisory or managerial employees. This change helps ensure that management will be held accountable for adhering to the organization's goals of equal opportunity. And I want to sincerely thank Mr. Waxman for his vigorous support for this diversity provision.
I am also pleased that the bill includes a study of the number of contracts with women, minorities and small businesses to ensure that all groups have access to the postal service contracts.
Mr. Speaker, these are just some of the provisions that will go a long way towards helping the postal service to better serve its customers, compete fairly with the mailing industry, and contribute to our Nation.
I especially want to thank the committee staff, Phil Barnett, Denise Wilson, Naomi Seiler, and all of the staff persons who worked to make this a reality.
I want to thank Ellen Brown, Jack Callender, Robert Taub and my staff, Richard Boykin and Jill Hunter-Williams.
Mr. Speaker, it is obviously time for postal reform. We have gone through this now for several years, and all of us who have worked on it are indeed pleased with the fact that we were able to compromise, to come together, to massage egos, to make real the idea that we can have a solid piece of legislation. I am proud to support it.
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