Printer Friendly
Postal News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 11, 2002
Contact: (202) 268-2155
STATEMENT OF UNDER SECRETARY PETER FISHER
ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A POSTAL PRESIDENTIAL COMMISSION
December 11, 2002
ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A POSTAL PRESIDENTIAL COMMISSION
December 11, 2002
Good morning. We're here to announce that President Bush is establishing a Commission on the U.S. Postal Service. At the request of the President, Jim Johnson and Harry Pearce will service as co-chairs of the Commission. I will introduce Mr. Johnson in a minute. Mr. Pearce tried to be here this morning but weather impeded his flight into Dulles. Postmaster General Jack Potter and Postal Service Board Chairman Bob Rider are also here with us and each will say a few words after my remarks.
The Postal Service is the linchpin of our domestic mailing industry. This industry as a whole represents 8% of our gross domestic product and 9 million workers. As business communications bills and payments move increasingly to the internet, the business model of the Postal Service is increasingly at risk. For the last four years, the annual volume of individual First-Class letters declined from 54.3 billion to 49.3 billion, even as the cost structure of the Postal Service has been expanding, as more than a million and a half new delivery addresses are added each year. New technology, declining volume and continued expansion of the delivery cost base, combined with competition from the private sector, pose a fundamental challenge for the Postal Service.
President Bush recognizes that now is the time to reassess how the Postal Service should adapt to the pressures from customers, competitors and technology and best fulfill its mission in the 21st century. The Commission will be an invaluable tool to develop strategies to meet the operational challenges that the Postal Service faces, and to chart a course that will build a healthy financial foundation. It will help us to learn how the Postal Service can execute its mission more efficiently and cost effectively.
The Postal Service needs to press on with its own Transformation Plan. Nothing should hold back those efforts. The Commission will consider the potential need for further steps that should be taken to secure the future of our entire system of mail delivery. Inaction is not acceptable—for taxpayers, mailers and for current and former Postal Service workers.
We're very pleased with the caliber of the people who have been willing to serve on the President's Commission. You have their names and affiliations in your packets. In my view, this is a great group of people to show us the way forward
The way I think of this is there are just two things that are out of bounds. We don't want the Commission to come back and suggest that the existing business model should be left in place, and all the costs rolled up on the taxpayer. We also don't want them to come back and say that all of the existing costs should be rolled up on the ratepayer. Everything else is on the table, and we hope they'll come with their best ideas.
You know, there are billions of dollars of postal operations that are out sourced—from planes and transportation, to some delivery, rural delivery routes. That said, our goal is not to privatize the Postal Service. We do want the Commission to give us the best ideas they can to make our mail delivery system viable in the 21st century. This is about insuring the long-term viability of the Postal Service, for mailers and taxpayers. Nothing more, and nothing less.
On a personal note, let me say how pleased I am that we have made it here to launching this Commission. I feel I have labored long and hard on this over the last year and a half, but I'm aware that there are many others who have been laboring much longer and much harder on these topics than I have.
In particular, there are a number of members of Congress who have shown outstanding leadership on this issue—Senator Collins, Senator Lieberman, and in the House, Congressmen McHugh and Waxman and Burton have all been working on these issues long before I even came to Washington. So, I think we're going to look to everyone to help this Commission see the way forward for our mail delivery system here in America. Now, Jack Potter will say a few words.
###
