As Congress returns from its annual summer recess, the remaining days on the legislative calendar are short, but policy challenges—particularly in postal reform—loom long. Printing Industries of America is founder and a leading member of the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service (C21), which represents the entire business supply channel in the mailing economy and is the key lobbying force on Capitol Hill advocating the passage of postal reform legislation. The major postal unions and C21 are aligned in efforts to support legislation, and while the alliance of industry and labor is particularly strong, efforts that looked promising in the beginning of the 116th Congress have stalled. Below are key talking points from C21 on why passage of postal reform legislation is critical to the printing industry: 1. The already daunting financial threat to the Postal Service is growing. USPS has defaulted on some $43 billion in required retiree health prefunding and normal costs, its mail volume has resumed a decline of 3-4 percent, and it had only 57 days of liquidity available as of the end of its third quarter 2019. Now, the declining mail segment (market dominant) of the system, still indispensable to keeping USPS self-funded as it receives no taxpayer monies, potentially faces a huge rate increase later this year.
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