The White House Releases Report, Includes Proposal to Privatize the Postal Service

On June 21, the Executive Office of the President released a report entitled Delivering Government Solutions in the 21st Century: Reform Plan and Reorganization Recommendations. The centerpiece of this White House proposal is to combine the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Labor into a single agency. Along with other sweeping reforms intended to reorganize the government, the plan includes a section on the Postal Service™, which focuses on taking steps toward privatization.

Beginning on page 68, the plan discusses privatizing the Postal Service. The summary states: “This proposal would restructure the United States Postal System to return it to a sustainable business model or prepare it for future conversion from a Government agency into a privately-held corporation. Like many European nations, the United States could privatize its postal operator while maintaining strong regulatory oversight to ensure fair competition and reasonable prices for customers. The President’s Task Force on the United States Postal System will make recommendations on reforms towards this goal in August 2018.”

Here is the full proposed plan, along with a recent article on the topic from GovExec.com.

As the GovExec article indicates, “The proposal is unlikely to gain any traction in Congress, which is currently working through its own reform packages to help the cash-strapped agency. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have spoken to the importance of preserving a federal mailing system to ensure delivery to all Americans, even to areas that the private sector has decided is not profitable to service. Members of Congress representing rural areas have particularly pushed not just the preservation of the Postal Service but an expansion of its offerings.”

BCC Software will continue to keep you apprised of any new developments.