WASHINGTON – Yesterday, House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., sent a letter to Democrat members of the Committee asking if they support President Obama’s postal reform provisions laid out in The President’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2015 and scheduled for Committee mark up this afternoon. The Chairman has not yet heard from the Democrats on the Committee and has decided to postpone the Committee’s mark up scheduled for this afternoon.
The letter states: “At the Committee’s April 8, 2014, hearing when the Office of Management and Budget testified in support of President Obama’s plan, I indicated a willingness to move forward with that plan as a compromise effort. This new proposal contains some provisions I do not support, but it is a compromise I could accept, to help us enact necessary bipartisan reforms to save the Postal Service. These include a transition to five-day mail delivery that has been included in bipartisan Senate legislation.”
Chairman Issa continues in the letter: “Shortly after the April 8, 2014 hearing, my staff consulted with Democratic committee staff about a proposal that would have largely implemented the President’s reforms. Notably, however, this initial offer did not include the President’s requested exigent rate increase, and it did include a small number of alterations that I believed would have strong bipartisan support, as well as the support of the Administration. The most significant of these changes would have been to require the Postal Service to continue to deliver packages on Saturday for at least 5 years and to mandate that there could never be more than 2 consecutive days without mail delivery as a result of the change to a 5-day delivery schedule.”
“In response to concerns offered by Democratic committee staff, however, I subsequently revised the proposal to eliminate any variations at all with the President’s budget. This revised language is what I intend to consider tomorrow. I believe it is a faithful representation of the President’s proposal.”
“Neither during the April 8, 2014, hearing nor since, however, have I received an indication that any Democratic members of the Committee would support the President’s proposal. I am deeply concerned that special interest groups are attempting to sabotage support for the President’s proposal, even amongst his own party, and push the Postal Service closer to a taxpayer-funded bailout.”