Keep US Posted, a coalition of individual consumers, small businesses, nonprofits, newspapers, greeting card publishers, magazines and catalogs, is submitting new economic analysis to Congress challenging the U.S. Postal Service’s plans to continue increasing postage rates twice per year. The analysis was submitted to the House Oversight Subcommittee on Government Operations and the Federal Workforce ahead of Wednesday’s 10 a.m. hearing concerning the USPS “Delivering for America” plan. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is expected to testify.
Commissioned by the Greeting Card Association, a Keep US Posted member organization, the new analysis exposes serious flaws in the Delivering for America plan’s projections and calls into question the viability of excessive postage rate increases. Specifically, the report notes that mail volumes were better than forecast initially, but the recent pattern of twice-a-year rate increases have led to a perilous loss of mail. The decline of First Class Mail volume threatens the entire USPS architecture, as without handwritten cards and letters, the incentive for Americans to check their mailbox six days a week declines. More importantly, the growth in package volume intended to offset the losses in traditional mail has not materialized, nor have projected cost reductions occurred. Keep US Posted submitted the report, along with a letter from its members, to the committee because no representatives of the mailing public have been invited to testify at the hearing.
more at: https://www.piworld.com/article/keep-us-posted-challenges-usps-postage-increases-ahead-of-congressional-hearing/