The Association of Magazine Media, on behalf of its member publishers,
strongly urges the Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service not
to seek an unlawful “exigent” postal rate increase. The increase –
possibly as high as 10 percent – would be a lose-lose proposition for both
magazine publishers and the Postal Service.
MPA has long advocated for postal reform legislation that would restore the
nation’s postal system to solvency, leading to stable, predictable and lawful
rate increases going forward. Attempting to address some of the Service’s
inherent problems – notably an oversized and underutilized infrastructure – by
imposing a rate increase on a product Postmaster Generals have called “the
anchor of the mailbox” is both unwise and unlawful. In addition, MPA urges the
Board of Governors to be mindful of the Postal Regulatory Commission’s position
that attempting to resolve issues unrelated to exigent circumstances, such as
the cost coverage of Periodicals mail, through an exigent
filing conflicts with the law.
