Press Release No. 01-3

For Immediate Release

Contact: Robert E. McLean

Release No. 01-3

703-418-0390

April 3, 2001

bmclean@mailers.org

Mailers Council Responds to Study of Five-Day Mail Delivery and Postal Facility Consolidations

WASHINGTON, April 3, 2001—The Mailers Council, the nation's largest coalition of mailers, today responded to the United States Postal Service’s announcement that it will consider five-day mail delivery and postal facility closings or consolidations in response to its current financial problems. Executive Director Robert E. McLean issued the following statement:

"The Mailers Council’s believes that today’s announcement by the USPS Board of Governors, like others in recent weeks, fails to focus attention where it is desperately needed: finding a way to avoid raising postage rates another 15 percent. These studies will take months to complete. More importantly, the Postal Service is legally prohibited from discontinuing six-day mail delivery or closing unprofitable post offices. Congress will not approve such controversial legislation before July, when the USPS proposes filing for another double-digit rate increase.

“We need the Postal Service to find ways of managing within its current legislative framework to reduce expenses. That’s the fastest way to avoid a rate increase that we believe will put the Postal Service on the path to its demise. More rate increases will only reduce already declining mail volumes further—which will require even higher rates.”

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Note to Media: For more information on the cost of postage increases to American businesses, visit the “For Hill Staffers” section of Mailers Council’s website (www.mailers.org), or call Joan Worden at 202-337-5411.