Issa Advances Bill to Cut Door Delivery

As previously discussed in the e-Team, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) appears unable to gain enough support for his extreme and anti-worker postal bill, H.R. 2748.  Now, he has adopted a new strategy and is trying to advance his destructive postal agenda piece by piece.

On May 21st, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee met to consider and mark up one portion of Issa’s postal privatization plans – door delivery of mail.  Issa’s latest postal bill, H.R. 4670, the so-called Secure Delivery for America Act of 2014, would eliminate door delivery of mail for 15 million households and businesses.  Further, the bill would impose a fee on those postal customers wishing to keep their door delivery; something Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) calls “a delivery tax.”

Committee Democrats chided Issa’s piecemeal approach to postal reform and offered amendments to address major postal concerns, such as eliminating the pre-fund mandate, refunding overpayments to FERS, and protecting 6-day delivery.  None of these important amendments were voted on however; as Chairman Issa ruled that they were not relevant to his postal reform bill. 

Ultimately, the bill was advanced out of committee on a party line vote, 18 Republicans for the bill and 13 Democrats against.  Whether the bill will receive any consideration before the full House remains to be seen.

Subcommittee Hearing on Postal Innovation

On May 22nd, the House Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, US Postal Service and Census convened a hearing to discuss postal innovations.

Witnesses testifying before the subcommittee included:

• James P. Cochrane – Chief Information Officer and Executive Vice President U.S. Postal Service
• David C. Williams – Inspector General U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General
• Will Davis – Chief Executive Officer Outbox, Inc.
• Seth Weisberg – Chief Legal Officer Stamps.com
• Patrick Eidemiller – Director Engineering and Technology M-pack Systems
• Todd Everett – Chief Operating Officer Newgistics, Inc.

Much of the testimony focused on partnerships that the Postal Service engaged in with private businesses, as well as partnerships the Postal Service decided not to pursue.  

Remarkably, at a congressional hearing on postal innovations, Issa took the opportunity to promote cuts to service over innovation.  Issa decried efforts by USPS Inspector General David Williams to promote postal innovations.  Issa said the Inspector General’s focus on postal innovations took focus off of investigating waste, fraud, and abuse.  Inspector General David Williams has made headlines recently for publishing a favorable report on postal banking, a commonsense innovation that could generate the Postal Service $9 billion annually.