Date: 2005-07-26
Speaker: TOM DAVIS (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Virginia

Mr. Chairman. I yield myself the balance of my time. It has been said that victory has 1.000 fathers. and defeat is an orphan. As we approach a victory on this bill tonight. at least on the House side. let me thank some of the fathers. We have talked about some of the Members being involved. but thanks also go out to the National Association of Manufacturers. the National Federation of Independent Business. the Small Business Legislative Council. a group of financial service companies like American Express. Bank of America. Capital One. Chase. Citigroup. Financial Services Roundtable. J.P. Morgan. groups in the newspaper and publisher business like Magazine Publishers of America. National Newspaper Association. Printing Industries of America. Time. Inc.. labor unions like the American Postal Workers Union. National Association of Letter Carriers. National Rural Letter Carriers and the National Postal Mail Handlers Association. postal management organizations like the National Association of Postmasters. National League of Postmasters. National Association of Postal Supervisors. postal competitors like United Parcel Express. UPS and FedEx. and other organizations like the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers. the Mailers Council. the Parcel Shippers Association. PitneyBowes and others. And on the staff side. Melissa Wojciak. my staff director. Jack Callender. who has made his career on the committee the Postal Service. Robert Taub. who the gentleman from New York rightly. I think. gives the credit for being the father of this behind the scenes. Ellen Brown. Mason Alinger of our staff. Rob Borden. Kristina Sherry. Michael Layman. Phil Barnett. Michelle Ash. Denise Wilson. Naomi Seiler. Jill HunterWilliams and Richard Boykin from the committee as well. All of these made major contributions. What does this tell us if we pass this legislation? The cost of stamps is going up. but if we pass this legislation. it will be nowhere near the increases that we will get without this important legislation. The need for postal reform is obvious in this case. Failure to act is a jobkiller. Inaction will jeopardize at least 1.5 million jobs. This is a top priority for industry. the mailing industry. a $900billionayear industry. nearly 9 percent of GDP. its economic value. 9 million jobs. Failure to act would be the same as a tax increase on American consumers. If we do not seize this moment. we effectively impose a significant new tax and a new tax burden on every American who uses stamps. If we do not take action. the Postal Service will be forced to begin increasing postal rates. starting with 2 cents at the beginning of next year. A small business that spends $5.000 annually on postage will lose almost $300 a year. An industry like financial services would get slammed with over $600 million in increases annually with no increase in productivity. And the American public will waste over $20 billion in unnecessary postage over the next decade. That is why this legislation needs to be passed. What is wrong with the current Postal Service? We have got some of the best and most dedicated workers in the world. as the gentleman from Maryland