APWU News Bulletin 12-2012, April 27, 2012 | PDF

The Senate passed an amended version of the 21st Century Postal Service Act (S. 1789) on April 25, and legislative action on postal reform will now move to the House of Representatives.

“Although the bill is flawed, the amended version is far better than the original,” said APWU President Cliff Guffey. “That is a result of the tremendous effort of APWU members, postal customers, and elected officials who appreciate the importance of the Postal Service to American life. Thank you for your hard work,” he said.

“With the moratorium on the closure of mail processing plants and post offices set to expire on May 15, we must now turn our attention to the House. We expect to face very tough challenges there,” Guffey said. “But we will do everything we can to get a good bill. We call on our members, small businesses, individual customers, and lawmakers to re-double our efforts to Save America’s Postal Service.”

“House leaders have not yet given any indication of how they plan to proceed,” said Myke Reid, APWU Legislative and Political director.

The House could consider H.R. 2309, a bill sponsored by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Rep. Dennis Ross (R-FL), which would destroy the Postal Service. More than half of the members of the House are co-sponsors of another bill, H.R. 1351, which postal unions support, but Rep. Issa, the chairman of the House committee with jurisdiction over the Postal Service, has refused to allow it to come up for a vote. The House also could consider the Senate bill. Read the rest of this entry »