Postal regulator backs change in Senate reform bill

The head of the Postal Service’s regulator is pushing back on a Senate proposal that would reduce her commission’s oversight power over the price of stamps and other postal products.

{mosads}Ruth Goldway, the chairwoman of the Postal Regulatory Commission, said the proposal from Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) would give USPS’s board too much power over its own rates.

The Senate Homeland Security Committee is scheduled to resume marking up the bill from Carper, the panel’s chairman, and Coburn, its top Republican, on Thursday. The two senators propose making permanent a current temporary rate hike, and giving the Postal Service greater latitude in revising its rate system come 2017 – a move that would diminish the power of the PRC.

In a letter to Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Goldway endorsed a proposal from Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) that would amend the current bill’s treatment on pricing.

That amendment, Goldway writes, preserves the PRC’s oversight powers “and will continue to ensure that prices for postal products are predictable, stable and fair, while continuing to incent the Postal Service to reduce costs and gain efficiencies.”

Carper has responded to criticism of the pricing proposal by saying the mailing industry has to make their own sacrifices in getting the Postal Service on firmer financial footing.