The following is a statement by Michael Makin, President and CEO of Printing Industries of America, regarding today's U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight Financial Condition of the Postal Service hearing.
“Today Congress had an opportunity to hear firsthand about the financial condition of the U.S. Postal Service from three major stakeholders that are most impacted by it —the printing industry, postal labor unions, and the United State Postal Service.
Joel Quadracci, CEO of Quad/Graphics, a Printing Industries of America member company, provided testimony on behalf of his company and the printing industry. Quadracci also represented the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service. The Coalition, of which Printing Industries of America is a founding member, represents the mailing economy supply chain, including paper, equipment suppliers, printers, packagers, retail, and other postal customers.
The key messages Mr. Quadracci delivered in his testimony focused on practical steps Congress can take to allow for financial stabilization of the USPS. These include legislative reforms addressing health care costs of USPS employees and retirees, the untenable burden of aggressive overfunding of retiree benefits, and ensuring that the Postal Rate Commission takes into account the financial improvement of USPS post-legislation as it considers postal rate adjustments.
Just as importantly, Mr. Quadracci highlighted the commerce aspect of the postal reform issue. The Postal Service is an invaluable delivery channel for printed products, but often its impact on the private sector is overlooked. The explosion of e-commerce package delivery and associated multichannel marketing along with innovations to increase the value of direct mail means this sector is viable, but it needs business certainty and postal rate affordability. Bipartisan postal reform legislation can help bring about these outcomes in the short-term and will stabilize the Postal Service so that innovations and structural reforms may be considered in the future.
Printing Industries of America wishes to thank House Oversight Committee Chairman Cummings, Ranking Member Jordan, and the full committee for its attention to this critical issue and their commitment to seek solutions to solve this urgent challenge facing our industry. We look forward to working with Congress to advance meaningful postal reform legislation this year.”
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