WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of
Americans would no longer get mail delivered to their door but would
have to go to communal or curbside boxes instead under a proposal
advancing through Congress.
The
Republican-controlled House Oversight and Government Reform Committee,
on an 18-13 party-line vote, approved a bill Wednesday to direct the
U.S. Postal Service to convert 15 million addresses over the next decade
to the less costly, but also less convenient delivery method.
Democrats objected to the plan, and efforts in recent years to win its adoption have failed.
"I
think it's a lousy idea," Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., said. Other
lawmakers said it wouldn't work in urban areas where there's no place on
city streets to put banks of "cluster boxes" with separate compartments
for each address. People with disabilities who have difficulty leaving
their homes could get waivers, and people who still want delivery to
their door could pay extra for it — something Lynch derided as "a
delivery tax."
The measure falls far short of a comprehensive
overhaul most officials agree is needed to solve the postal service's
financial problems. The committee's chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa,
R-Calif., acknowledged that at the outset but said it "provides an
interim opportunity to achieve some significant cost savings."
Converting
to communal or curbside delivery would save $2 billion annually, Issa
said, quoting from estimates that door delivery costs $380 annually per
address compared with $240 for curbside and $170 for centralized
methods. He said less than 1 percent of all addresses nationwide would
undergo a delivery change annually and that communal boxes offer a safe,
locked location for packages, doing away with the need for carriers to
leave packages on porches and subject to theft and bad weather.
The
Postal Service reported a $1.9 billion loss for the first three months
this year despite continued cost-cutting, a 2.3 percent rise in
operating revenue and increased employee productivity. Package business
has risen but the service struggles with inflationary cost increases and
a continued decline in first-class mailing as people move to the
Internet for letter writing and bill paying.
Postal
officials have asked repeatedly for comprehensive legislation giving
them more control over personnel and benefit costs and more flexibility
in pricing and products. Though various legislative proposals have been
advanced, Congress has not been able to agree on a bill with broad
changes.
"Lawmakers should fix
what they broke, not break what's working," National Association of
Letter Carriers President Fredric Rolando said, referring to a 2006 law
that requires the Postal Service to prefund its retiree health benefits.
Meeting that requirement accounts for the bulk of the postal service's
red ink. He said the Oversight Committee's bill is "irresponsible ...
bad for the American public, bad for businesses, bad for the economy and
bad for the U.S. Postal Service."
The
Postal Service has been moving to more centralized delivery for some
new addresses but hasn't done much to convert existing addresses, Issa
said.
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