The News/Media Alliance filed comments with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) on their Statutory Review of the System for Regulating Rates and Classes for Market Dominant Products on July 9. The comments focus on three key items:
1. Eliminating the non-compensatory surcharge or converting to a performance incentive tied to improvements in cost and service to hold the postal service accountable;
2. Prohibiting multiple rate increases in one year; and
3. Eliminating the density authority.
In addition, the Alliance joined stakeholder comments filed on July 9, which discuss how the density surcharge has failed and urge that rate increases should be limited to only once per year. Numerous other comments were filed including from the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service, Keep Us Posted, and the Association for Postal Commerce, all of which the Alliance is a member of.
The PRC heard numerous stakeholder complaints on rate increases and service delivery and as a result voted unanimously to begin a new rulemaking to reconsider the rate setting system two years earlier than the anticipated start date.
Holly Lubart is Vice President, Government Affairs at the News/Media Alliance. Previously, she served as Vice President of Government Affairs for the PA NewsMedia Association and started her career as a journalist. Lubart has over 20 years of political and communications experience.
