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Despite the likely return of key members of Congress, mailer groups were unsure how much this would translate into postal reform in the next session.

They were also unsure about the depth of the White House's commitment to reform.

"The chances of getting a postal reform bill passed in new Congress are no greater or less than they were before," said Gene Del Polito, president of the Association for Postal Commerce, who stressed that the most immediate concern was getting relief from the Civil Service Retirement System obligations that the U.S. Postal Service has to resume paying.

In the fall of 2002, the USPS discovered that it had overpaid the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) fund that provides for its retired employees by more than $70 billion. But in order for the USPS to reclaim that money it needed Congressional approval [Direct Newsline, Oct. 12].

The industry then lobbied Congress fervently and got the payments obligations transferred to the U.S. Treasury Dept. Earlier this year, however, the Bush administration, apparently wary of new spending schemes, seemed ready to saddle the USPS with pension obligations once again, said Del Polito.

Two postal reform bills in the last session of Congress, S2468 and HR 4341 that dealt with this issue and many others, died and will have to be re-introduced after Congress reconvenes in January.

One reason why Congress may nit have addressed this issue before he election was that transferring this obligation to the Treasury Department would have increased the federal budget deficit.

"Now that the election is behind us, we trust that the postal oversight committees will take up this issue and end this stamp tax," said Neal Denton, executive director of the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers.

Denton said he hoped Congress could take care of this during a lame duck session before January, "because when the 109th Congress convenes, they're going to have a lot of priorities before them."

He said the Alliance was putting the finishing touches on new correspondence with the appropriate Congressional officials.

In the new 109th Congress, the same people who led the postal oversight committees will very likely be back and that's a good thing, said Bob McLean, executive director of the Mailers Council. "It gives us a built-in advantage since we don't have to educate anybody about the issues, " he said.

"The question is how much is the White House concerned about postal reform," said McLean. In previous discussions with them, he said the White House did not feel these bills reformed the USPS enough but was unclear to why.

He said the Mailers Council will be talking to the White House "very soon" about its concerns.

Overall, to push for postal reform in the new Congress, mailers and others must be focused and unified, said Del Polite.

"It's time the mailers, the postal service and the unions all got together to form a strong coalition and not get too distracted and absorbed by horse shit like how large the new Postal Rate Commission should be," he said.

"I think that with the administration in favor of postal reform and the same players back, we can push for postal reform this year," added Jerry Cerasale, senior vice president of government affairs for the Direct Marketing Association.

He noted that the lack of resolution on the CSRS issue put additional pressure on Congress to resolve the issue quickly.

"But since the next postal rate case probably won't be filed until April, they've got time," he said.

Even though the administration generally supports postal reform, he understands they have some reservations but like the Mailers Council's McLean, does not know what they are specifically.