SF 2123

1st Engrossment - 84th Legislature (2005 - 2006) Posted on 12/15/2009 12:00am

A resolution
memorializing the President, Congress, and the United States Postal Service to
maintain current levels of service.

WHEREAS, the United States Postal Service, founded in 1775, provides dependable,
affordable mail service to all Minnesota communities, rich and poor, urban and rural, with
uniform postage rates; and

WHEREAS, the United States Postal Service remains an important part of the nation's
economic infrastructure through which nearly $1 trillion of economic activity is conducted each
year and in which 9,000,000 are employed; and

WHEREAS, millions of older, disabled, and economically disadvantaged Minnesotans,
especially in rural areas, do not have easy access to the Internet or to electronic banking and bill
paying and are therefore heavily dependent on the United States Postal Service for communication
and the conducting of business transactions; and

WHEREAS, Americans currently enjoy the most extensive postal service at the lowest
postage rates of any major industrialized nation in the world; and

WHEREAS, excessive below-cost postage discounts to large business and advertising
mailers drain billions of dollars in revenue from the United States Postal Service causing small
businesses and ordinary citizens to subsidize those discounts through higher postage rates; and

WHEREAS, the Commission on the United States Postal Service has recommended
changes to postal operations that would sever postal employees from federal employee health,
retirement, and workers' compensation programs, and has recommended repeal of laws that
would pave the way toward reducing rank-and-file wages and benefits while simultaneously
eliminating the current salary cap on executive-level postal positions; and

WHEREAS, the commission has recommended a new President-appointed, corporate-style
board of directors and a new Postal Regulatory Board and has proposed giving these new
politically appointed governing bodies broad authority to set rates without prior approval or
review; and

WHEREAS, the commission has proposed to refine the scope of the United States Postal
Service's "universal service" obligation and uniform rate structure and change and restrict the
scope of services currently protected under postal monopoly regulations; and

WHEREAS, the new board's broad authority would allow post offices to be closed without
community input and prices to be set with a complicated postage rate structure or would turn over
postal operations to private for-profit enterprises, despite a recent survey whose respondents had
an overwhelmingly favorable view of the United States Postal Service, with 3 out of 4 saying
no major changes are needed; and

WHEREAS, replacing the United States Postal Service's public service obligation with a
profit-seeking mandate would undermine the United States Postal Service's historical "universal
service" obligation, weaken its national infrastructure, and divide our nation politically and
economically; and

WHEREAS, in the interim period prior to legislated postal reform, the United States Postal
Service may unilaterally move forward with initiatives to close post offices in Minnesota prior to
allowing full input by the affected communities; NOW, THEREFORE,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota that it urges the President
and the Congress of the United States and the United States Postal Service to continue to
maintain affordable, dependable mail service at current levels because of its social and economic
importance to our nation.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature of the State of Minnesota opposes
any effort to undermine the United States Postal Service's "universal service" obligation and
its uniform rate structure.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the service hours should be returned to levels before
the report of the President's Commission on the United States Postal Service and prior to the
implementation of the Small Post Office Reviews and Standardization Program, and that any
recommendation from the commission that curtails public services in the current postal service
be rejected.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature of the State of Minnesota goes on
record against any changes that would harm the public and workers of the United States Postal
Service, including legislated or United States Postal Service initiatives to close or consolidate
post offices, take away or modify the collective bargaining system of postal workers, or change
the current bargaining system for employee benefits.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of State of the State of Minnesota is
directed to prepare copies of this memorial and transmit them to the President of the United
States, the President and the Secretary of the United States Senate, the Speaker and the Clerk of
the United States House of Representatives, the Postmaster General of the United States Postal
Service, the chair of the Senate Committee on Budget, the chairs of the House Committees on
Ways and Means, Rules, and Budget, and Minnesota's Senators and Representatives in Congress.