Author: Steve Kearney
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Alliance Alert–USPS & Coronavirus 3/27/20
The House of Representatives passed the $2.2 trillion coronavirus aid bill, previously passed by the Senate, by voice vote, and it now goes to the President for his signature. The CARES Act includes the following provisions for the United States Postal Service. The increase in borrowing authority should take care of liquidity concerns in the…
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Alliance Alert–USPS & Coronavirus 3/23/20
This is an update on United States Postal Service and coronavirus issues. Mail is safe. In an updated statement on their Service Alerts page, the USPS has indicated that “there is currently no evidence that COVID-19 is being spread through the mail.” Service is normal. Also on the Service Alerts page and consistent with…
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Alliance Alert–USPS & Coronavirus 3/19/20
We participated in another call with senior U.S. Postal Service officials today. Here are our notes from the meeting. We will continue to update you as the coronavirus crisis evolves. USPS will become much more proactive about communicating. Postmaster General Megan Brennan formed a full time team that includes Steve Monteith as our point of…
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Alliance Report–USPS & Coronavirus 3/18/20
March 18, 2020 The Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers continues to focus on the use of mail by nonprofits in this time of crisis. We believe that nonprofits should maintain or even increase their mailing programs as coronavirus precludes other avenues for the foreseeable future. The personal touch of hard-copy delivered to our homes is always…
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Visions for the Future of USPS are Aligned in Some Ways, Contradictory in Others
March 9, 2020 Last week we and others submitted our “reply comments” on the statements that had been filed previously on the Postal Regulatory Commission’s revised proposal to allow postage rate increases several times higher than general inflation as a near-term solution to try to save the United States Postal Service. You can read the…
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Alliance Reply Comments in the PRC Ten-Year Review
March 9, 2020 On March 4, we filed reply comments in the Statutory Review of the System for Regulating Rates and Classes for Market Dominant Products. Many focus on the PRC reduction of the review to one of many objectives: “(5) assure adequate revenues, including retained earnings, to maintain financial stability.” Our 30 pages are…
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What’s Next with the PRC Ten-Year Review
March 9, 2020 The one thing we can count on is continued uncertainty. The Postal Regulatory Commission will deliberate in private for an unknown period of time. The five Commissioners will read hundreds of pages submitted by customers, unions, business partners, suppliers, and employee organizations. They will receive reports from and confer with their staff…
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Alliance Alert–USPS & Coronavirus 3/6/20
March 6, 2020 Dear Friends of the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers: We just had a call with Steve Monteith, VP of marketing at USPS, about coronavirus. The short version is that the U.S. Postal Service has decided on no significant changes nor identified any service issues at the moment, except for previously announced impacts on…
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Battle Lines Forming–Linn’s Stamp News
Postal Updates Battle lines forming over setting of U.S. stamp prices Mar 4, 2020, 12 PM An effort by the United States Postal Regulatory Commission to revise current rules regulating stamp prices is encountering opposition from organizations that rely on the mails. Washington Postal Scene by Bill McAllister For years successive postmasters general have pleaded…
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Alliance Submits Extensive Comments in Opposition to PRC Proposal to Allow Massive Rate Hikes by Postal Service
February 13, 2020 On February 3, 2020, the Alliance filed our initial comments in response to Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) Order No. 5337. This was the Commission’s December 5, 2019 revised proposal to “bust the price cap” and grant the Postal Service significant above-inflation pricing authority over market-dominant mail products. We were joined by eight…