Rep. Istook Nudges Postal Rate Commission to Investigate the

Cost of Non-Postal Products

(Washington, D.C.)  The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) today commended Chairman of the House Transportation, Treasury and Independent Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee Rep. Ernest J. Istook, Jr. (R-Okla.), for pushing the Postal Rate Commission (PRC) to bring more financial accountability to the United States Postal Service’s (USPS) non-postal businesses and services.  In a letter to PRC Chairman George Omas, Rep. Istook supported a petition by the PRC’s Office of the Consumer Advocate (OCA) that addresses the lack of financial transparency surrounding dozens of non-jurisdictional services offered by the USPS. 

“This petition has been buried at the PRC for over a year, and no action has been taken on it,” CCAGW Special Projects Director Leslie Paige said.  “The Commission should not be able to sidestep such an important issue, since it addresses longstanding weaknesses in the USPS’ financial operations and demands basic accountability and financial transparency.  The President’s Commission on the United States Postal Service advised the USPS to stick to its core mission of delivering the mail.  Ratepayers should not be forced to subsidize the many commercial boondoggles the USPS gets into, only to pull the plug years later without ever having to divulge the true magnitude of its losses.” 

The USPS’ accounting procedures currently obscure the full costs, revenues, and losses related to non-jurisdictional services.  Rep. Istook’s letter urges Chairman Omas to review the jurisdictional status of fourteen products and services and to establish accounting rules for assessing their true cost and revenues. Says Istook:

I consider it important that all U.S. Postal Service services have a high degree of financial transparency, accountability, and oversight so that ratepayers for one service are not subsidizing excessive costs for any other service.

“Many people may not realize it, but the first skirmish in the battle over long-term postal reform is already underway,” Paige concluded.  “This petition by the OCA is a vital step in opening up the USPS’ books to oversight, and getting them out of inappropriate commercial enterprises.”

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, the nation's largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.