– Last week Postmaster General Louis DeJoy covered his ears in response to criticisms from members of Congress about service quality under his tenure, perhaps cementing his legacy of unresponsiveness and failure.
At the same time, DeJoy was testifying, however, the National Newspaper Association (NNA) leadership and public affairs team was meeting with numerous staff members in key offices to reiterate postal concerns and priorities, and they were all ears.
These included
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Missouri), Senators Eric Schmitt (R-MO), Jerry Moran (R-Kansas),
Senate oversight Ranking Member Gary Peters (D-Michigan) and Jon Ossoff (D-Georgia).
The message reflected the concerns recently highlighted by Editor and Publisher about the series of punitive rate increases, widespread service failures and lack of responsiveness epitomized by DeJoy’s hand on ears moment. Staffers for all these offices were open to considering key pieces of legislation
NNA is endorsing including the USPS SERVES US Act as well as the Deliver for Democracy Act and an in-county rate cap.
Their engagement would be aided by the introduction of a bill and the group also met with staff for Rep. Sam Graves (R-Missouri) who confirmed that they are in active dialogue with the House Legislative Counsel office on developing a new version of the legislation and hope to have an update in the middle of January.
The NNA public affairs team also met with staff for Senate oversight committee Chairman Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) to request his support. Given the comments from many House and Senate members during the hearings, there is a real opportunity to advance these proposals in the new Congress. At the same time, momentum appears to be building for privatization. NNA will be evaluating what, if any, variations could be acceptable and what key goals and concerns would be for any such effort.
