Savvas Learning Company CEO Bethlam Forsa Named Most Influential Thought Leader in EdTech

Keep US Posted, an alliance consisting of consumer interests, industry groups, newspapers, nonprofits and businesses, applauds the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations for directing the Postal Regulatory Commission, which governs the U.S. Postal Service, to study the impact of planned postage increases. The Committee’s action, included in the 2023 spending package, is a direct response to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s announcement that stamp prices will increase July 31 and every six months thereafter, despite this year’s bipartisan postal reform law designed to fiscally stabilize the Postal Service and prevent unnecessary postage hikes. “It is destructive for Postal Service leadership to squeeze every last drop of revenue from the mail at the expense of the American people,” said Keep US Posted Executive Director and former Congressman Kevin Yoder (R-Kans.). “In just a decade, Americans could be paying well over $1 to mail a single letter. Using the mail will become unaffordable for American families, as well as newspapers, nonprofits, and businesses that depend on the Postal Service. These excessive postage increases will decrease volume and revenue so much that it will ultimately hurt the Postal Service’s 650,000 workers and their ability to keep delivering for our country. Projected mail decline will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The Postal Service’s Expanded Election Mail Task Force, which was recently announced by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to enhance already-existing Election Mail efforts, held its inaugural meeting today. The meeting was productive and included the leadership of all four of the major unions of the Postal Service, as well as the leaders of our management associations. The Task Force members reviewed current plans to ensure and affirm that the Postal Service is prepared to deliver on the election. All parties at the meeting are fully focused on the mission and the importance of ensuring the election remains the number one priority for the more than 630,000 employees of the Postal Service.

Yet another effort is underway in Congress to eliminate the costly prefunding of U.S. Postal Service retiree healthcare benefits that have been an albatross for the USPS since a 2006 reform measure, and this time appears to have some more bipartisan momentum. A reform act that would eliminate the prefunding, which has cost the USPS many billions over the years, passed the House in 2020 but was hung up in the Senate. Now senators Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Steve Daines (R-MT) have reintroduced the measure, according to Federal News Network. A companion bill has been proposed by House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio (D-OR), along with Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Tom Reed (R-NY) and Colin Allred (D-TX).