Earlier this week, ten Members of Congress formed a bipartisan coalition to introduce a resolution in the House of Representatives opposing privatization of the Postal Service. If adopted, the resolution (H. Res. 993) would express the sense of the House of Representatives “that Congress should take all appropriate measures to ensure that the United States Postal Service remains an independent establishment of the Federal Government and is not subject to privatization.”
The resolution was introduced by Republican representative Rodney Davis of Illinois and Democratic representative Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts. Other cosponsors include Republicans Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Paul Cook (R-CA), Brian Mast (R-FL), and Don Young (R-AK), as well as Democrats Cedric Richmond (D-LA), Stephanie Murphy (D-FL), Dave Loebsack (D-IA), and Marcia Fudge (D-OH).
H. Res. 993 is a direct response to the Trump Administration’s so-called Reform Plan and Reorganization Recommendations – formally entitled the OMB’s Report on Delivering Government Solutions in the 21st Century – which includes various Trump proposals for reorganizing the federal government. Buried deep in the Report is the President’s plan to restructure the Postal Service into a “sustainable business model” and thereby “prepare it for future conversion . . . into a privately held corporation.” National President Paul Hogrogian already has rejected the Trump plan: “The inevitable result of such privatization,” said Hogrogian, “would be to destroy universal postal services for every American.” Such service has been a mainstay of the nation’s systems for communications and commerce ever since the Founding Fathers put the Post Office into the U.S. Constitution.
Also relevant is the Trump Task Force on the Postal Service, which was established in April 2018 and is charged with evaluating the finances of the U.S. Postal Service, including pricing, policies, and workforce costs. This Task Force has a mid-August 2018 deadline for issuing its report and may be considering certain privatization plans while preparing a final set of written recommendations.
Please watch this website and your Union bulletins for the ongoing developments.
View H. RES. 993 (pdf)
