_________________________________________________________________ ALAWON Volume 7, Number 128 ISSN 1069-7799 October 15, 1998 American Library Association Washington Office Newsline In this issue: (148 lines) [1] POSTAL RATE COMMISSION RULES ON LIBRARY RATE; ACTION NEEDED TO KEEP LIBRARY RATE IN THE FUTURE [2] POSTAL REFORM BILL APPROVED BY SUBCOMMITTEE _________________________________________________________________ [1] POSTAL RATE COMMISSION RULES ON LIBRARY RATE; ACTION NEEDED TO KEEP LIBRARY RATE IN THE FUTURE On September 24 the Postal Rate Commission issued a further recommendation related to Library Rate mail in connection with the R97-1 postal rate case in which ALA participated. The PRC clarified that presorted Library Rate mail can both retain its status as Library Rate and take advantage of the existing Special Rate (formerly the commercial book rate) presort discounts. The PRC and the Governors also appear to agree that nonprofit Library Rate mail should not pay higher rates than the commercial Special Rate mail (see BACKGROUND below). The PRC issued a revised schedule for the Library Rate in appendix one, p. 4, of their September 24 decision. The Library Rate is included in the table below and is also available at http://www.prc.gov/wsdocs/R97-1/decfurther.htm. _________________________________________________________________ LIBRARY RATE MAIL POSTAGE _________________________________________________________________ Package Current On 1/10/99 _________________________________________________________________ First Pound, not presorted**** $1.12 $1.13 LEVEL A Presort (5-digits)*,** -- $0.64 LEVEL B Presort (BMC) *,***,**** -- $0.95 Each additional lb. through 7 lbs. $0.42 $0.45 Each additional lb. over 7 lbs. $0.22 $0.28 _________________________________________________________________ Typical 3-lb. Library Rate package $ 1.96 $2.03 _________________________________________________________________ Notes: * A fee of $100.00 must be paid once each 12-month period for each permit. ** For mailings of 500 or more pieces properly prepared and presorted to five-digit destination ZIP codes. *** For mailings of 500 or more pieces properly prepared and presorted to Bulk Mail Centers. **** For Barcoded Discount, deduct $0.03 per-piece. _________________________________________________________________ BACKGROUND: The Postal Rate Commission acted on a request made last June by the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors for reconsideration of certain matters including Library Rate mail. For libraries, the issue involved the efficiency of combined, rather than separate, rate schedules for Library and Special Rate mail. The Commission determined that the Postal Service's July 1997 request for the Library Rate mail would have effectively eliminated the Library Rate. This was a point raised by ALA as a participant in the recent postal rate case when it opposed the steep increases requested by USPS for the Library Rate mail. When the PRC reopened the rate case, ALA asked the Commission to reconsider a previous recommendation from ALA and the Commission's Office of Consumer Advocate: apply the preferred rate markup for Library Rate mail to the estimated attributable costs of Special Rate mail. Equalizing costs instead of rates would have maintained a differential of 2.7 percent between Library and Special Rates. This differential, although small, would preserve the Library Rate as a distinct economic entity. The Commission was not persuaded by ALA's arguments. However, the PRC said both the Commission and the Governors are concerned with preserving the recognizable subclass of Library Rate mail. ACTION NEEDED: Another postal rate case can be anticipated in several years. When it happens, it will be important that data are available to show that mailers need and use the Library Rate mail. This may be harder to show as the postal rates are the same for the commercial Special Rate mail and the nonprofit Library Rate mail. The ALA Washington Office encourages library mailers to continue to mail eligible packages using the Library Rate mail and mark packages Library Rate so they can be counted in statistical samples that are used to compute USPS mail costs. _________________________________________________________________ [2] POSTAL REFORM BILL APPROVED BY SUBCOMMITTEE On September 24 the House Postal Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. John McHugh (R-NY), approved a 154-page postal reform bill, H.R. 22. The bill is not expected to progress further at this time, but is likely to serve as the foundation for postal reform bills in the next Congress. The bill would alter the way postal rates are set by creating two categories for postal rates-competitive and noncompetitive. Competitive mail categories would include those postal products facing full competition within the marketplace. The noncompetitive category would include those products such as first and other classes of mail for which there are few practical or legal alternatives to the Postal Service. Noncompetitive mail products (e.g., library mail and nonprofit Standard A mail) would have rates established using a price "cap" regimen, based on the Consumer Price Index minus an adjustment factor based on productivity. The text of H.R. 22 agreed to by the Subcommittee can be found at http://www.house.gov/reform/postal/hearings/el_027.pdf. During the development of H.R. 22, ALA wrote to Rep. McHugh on April 1, 1998. ALA supported the recommendation of the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers (of which ALA is a member) that nonprofit postal rates be maintained as a fixed percentage of the corresponding regular rates. However, ALA noted that the Library Rate would need special attention and adjustment to participate in and benefit from this straightforward recommendation. The letter is at http://www.house.gov/reform/postal/letters/comments/ALA.pdf. _________________________________________________________________ ALAWON is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. To subscribe, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc @ala.org. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.ala.org/washoff/ subscribe.html or send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/ washoff/alawon. Visit our Web site at http://www.alawash.org. ALA Washington Office 202.628.8410 (V) 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, #403 202.628.8419 (F) Washington, DC 20004-1701 800.941.8478 (V) Lynne E. Bradley, Editor Deirdre Herman, Managing Editor Contributors: Anne Heanue All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. _________________________________________________________________