• With the government shutdown and expiration of appropriations, the law requiring USPS to deliver mail 6 days a week has evaporated. We have been watching activity at USPS headquarters to see whether management would use this window to move ahead on its plans to kill Saturday mail. While restoration of funding for the general government

would almost surely bring the 6-day rule back with it, if USPS could move quickly enough, it might dare its adversaries to go to court fast enough to block the action.

• So far, however, we are not seeing movement.
• That almost assuredly is because negotiations on a postal reform bill are underway. While both Houses of Congress await some sort of end-the-shutdown deal, time is hanging heavy on the floor. This is a window where the right reform bill might move.
• Mailing organizations, union leaders and Congressional staffs all have various proposals on the table. The largest question is whether an agreement is possible on shifting USPS retirees to Medicare, with a USPS-paid wraparound policy. If an accord can be reached on that issue, we still stand a very good chance of saving 6-day delivery.  However, there also are proposals to remove the cap on annual postage increases, which NNA would oppose.
• Veterans of NNA's Congressional Action Team know well that late fall is when laws finally get enacted, sometimes in a great hurry after months of inactivity. This may be our year. I am optimistic that a bill might move that will prevent further service cuts and still protect us from escalating postage increases.
• There also is, as you know, a proposal before the Postal Regulatory Commission to increase postage rates by 6-9% in categories most heavily used by newspapers. NNA will be opposing those increases and looking to modify them back toward the rate of inflation.