Dear Chairwoman Maloney and Ranking Member Comer,
On behalf of the Greeting Card Association (GCA), I am writing to offer strong support for the Postal Service Reform Act of 2021 (H.R. 3076). For more than a decade, on behalf of its members and America’s citizen mailers, the GCA has supported consensus-based, comprehensive reform legislation to address the unintended consequences of the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement reform law and the many new challenges the USPS and its customers have faced since its enactment.
More than half of all greeting cards sold are delivered to their final recipients by the USPS. The long-term health and reliability of the USPS is a critical factor in the success of the greeting card industry that generates nearly 2 billion highly valued mail pieces each year, providing highly desirable red-carpet experiences for recipients at their mailbox.
H.R. 3076 incorporates numerous commonsense reforms to rationalize USPS expenses for health care while ensuring that the critical standard of 6-day mail delivery from a unified delivery network for mail and packages is maintained. When enacted, these reforms will have a profound impact on improving the USPS’s financial stability, augmenting the COVID-19 relief Congress provided and better-than-expected revenue for the USPS during the period of the pandemic.
As we have discussed with your staff, we think it is critical that the Postal Regulatory Commission re-evaluate its decision to expand the rate cap for Market Dominant mail products and urge you to support this requirement in the FY2022 Financial Services and General Government funding bill that we expect to be finalized at the end of the year.
We support prompt action for H.R. 3076 on the House floor at the earliest possible date and its approval by the Senate as soon as possible. Your leadership in this Congress has brought us closer to the enactment of needed postal reform than at any point in the last decade. We commend you for your efforts so far and are committed to offering any possible assistance to ensure that your bill becomes law this year.
Sincerely,
Amy McAnarney
President, Greeting Card Association