Postal Reform Can't Leave Rural Americans Behind

The United States Postal Service (USPS) is at a crossroads, facing critical decisions about its leadership, operations, and long-term strategy.

Major changes that could change the trajectory of the agency may be looming on the horizon and questions remain about whether it will continue on its current path — particularly with its controversial Regional Transportation Optimization (RTO) initiative — or use this inflection point as an opportunity to reassess its priorities.

In late January, the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) issued an advisory opinion and detailed 300-page analysis regarding proposed service changes under the Postal Service’s RTO initiative which should help provide some guidance. This came after a formal review was conducted, as required by law, which included testimony from five Postal Service executives and an on-the-record hearing at which PRC commissioners were able to cross examine them. The PRC also reviewed hundreds of pages of testimony from interested private parties.

After this exhaustive process, the PRC concluded the RTO proposal — which would cut in half mail collections and delivery at over 14,000 rural Post Offices — would have significant negative service effects on rural America. Specifically, the PRC determined that the RTO plan was contrary to existing law because it did not conform to the established policy and service obligations under 39 U.S.C. § 101(a) and (e) to “bind the nation together” and to “provide prompt, reliable, and efficient services to patrons of all areas and … render postal services to all communities.”

The PRC also found that even the meager cost savings that the USPS claim from the RTO were speculative and unsubstantiated. The Commission stated that “without empirical support, the Postal Service cannot demonstrate that its assumptions reflect the actual likelihood of realizing these savings” and urged the agency to reconsider this significant downgrade in service for a substantial portion of the nation in light of this reality.

Concerningly, this guidance was almost never provided. Although the Postal Service is required by law to seek an advisory opinion from the PRC prior to adopting changes to nationwide service like those proposed under the RTO, the Postal Service resisted doing so.

Only following bipartisan congressional pressure and after the PRC issued a rare order to the Postal Service demanding it show cause why it was not submitting such a request, did the Postal Service relent and finally do so.

Even more unfortunate is that despite this strong evidence that the Postal Service should reconsider and pause the RTO proposal, USPS leadership continues to ignore reality.

At a Postal Board of Governors meeting held on February 6, rather than address the PRC’s findings, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy attacked the PRC’s competence to perform the review (as required by law) and again asserted, without any substantiation, that the proposed changes would save money. And he left little doubt that USPS would proceed in defiance of these recommendations.

DeJoy’s damaging RTO is not a serious effort to control costs and to help the USPS stop losing billions of dollars every year. If it were a serious business approach to cut unnecessary and wasteful costs while maintaining the mission of the USPS and the quality of its service to the entire nation, it would be easy to get behind it.

But DeJoy’s RTO isn’t such an effort and will do stunningly little to stop the billions in annual losses at the USPS.

What it will do though, is clearly damage the ability of the USPS to provide timely and reliable service to the entire nation. It violates the law, and it makes rural America second-class citizens with third-rate service.

With DeJoy now announcing his intention to step down as postmaster general an opening as emerged to reverse this plan. Congress needs to act, as rural Americans across the country should not be made to pay for DeJoy’s speculative, untested, and damaging RTO proposal.

A previous Senate bill said it would permanently enjoin future changes at the Post Office if the Commission found they would harm service and the PRC has now made that conclusive finding. The time has come for Congress to “SAY NO TO THE RTO!”

George Landrith has served as president of Frontiers of Freedom, since 1998. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was Business Editor of the Virginia Journal of Law and Politics. He is also the author of "Let Freedom Ring . . . Again." To learn more about Frontiers of Freedom, visit www.ff.org. Read George Landrith's Reports — More Here.