February 15, 2017 01:45 PM

By Bill McAllister, Washington Correspondent

PMG Brennan urges Postal Regulatory Commission to end postage price cap

There is a crack in the mailers coalition backing the bipartisan bill that Postmaster General Megan J. Brennan has endorsed.

The Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers said Brennan’s testimony before the House Oversight Committee “should send chills down the backs of every mailer.”

The postmaster general said she wants the Postal Regulatory Commission to urge an end to the price cap that keeps postage increases to no more than the rate of inflation.

“The Postal Service is going for the brass ring — unfettered monopoly pricing power,” the Alliance said in its newsletter.

In an article titled “PMG: Trust us,” the organization attacked Brennan’s arguments for placing greater pricing powers in the hands of the USPS.

“Generally, monopolists charge the highest price they can get away with while not worrying about lower than maximum possible volume,” the article said.

“Ms. Brennan, however, said that the Postal Service would be different by emphasizing growth and scaling its operation to demand.”

The price cap has been in place since 2007. Before that time, Brennan said the Postal Service was always careful about the size of its price increases.