BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SJR 11
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Date of Hearing: August 25, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY
Mark Stone, Chair
SJR
11 (Leyva) - As Introduced May 26, 2015
SENATE VOTE: 25-12
SUBJECT: UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE
KEY ISSUE: SHOULD THE LEGISLATURE URGE CONGRESS TO RESTORE
POSTAL SERVICE STANDARDS AND OPPOSE ANY LEGISLATION THAT FAILS
TO CONTINUE THE CURRENT SIX-DAY DELIVERY MANDATE AND
DOOR-TO-DOOR DELIVERY SERVICE?
SYNOPSIS
In 2012, after years of losses, the United States Postal Service
(USPS) began reductions in postal services, closing mail
processing facilities across the country. These closures
represent the loss of thousands of jobs across the nation and
here in California. The USPS is now considering further service
reductions, including closing more mail processing facilities,
including several in California, eliminating six-day a week
delivery services and reducing door-to-door deliveries. Two
resolutions have been introduced in Congress this year seeking
to reverse USPS service cuts, but neither resolution has been
scheduled for a hearing. (H. Res 12; H. Res 54.) Instead, a
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House committee passed legislation last session to reduce
door-to-door USPS deliveries. (H.R. 2748.) This resolution
urges Congress to prevent any further degradation of postal
service and to restore service levels to those that existed
before the cuts. This bill is sponsored by the California State
Association of Letter Carriers and supported by other labor
organizations. It has no known opposition.
SUMMARY: Urges Congress to restore services of the United
States Postal Services and to oppose additional service
reductions. Specifically, this measure:
1)Declares that on January 5, 2015, the USPS implemented lower
"service standards" to virtually eliminate overnight delivery
of first-class mail and periodicals, and further delay most
other mail.
2)Declares that delayed mail negatively impacts businesses,
residents, communities and the economy, resulting in lower
revenue and damaging the financial situation of the USPS.
3)Declares that robust service standards implemented by the USPS
are essential to providing prompt and timely delivery of all
mail.
4)Declares that planned shutdowns of mail sorting centers would
seriously affect hundreds of employees, over 22 percent of
whom are United States military veterans, many with
disabilities.
5)Declares that at least one of these mail sorting facilities,
located in Eureka, California, is planning to shift its mail
distribution to Oregon, which contradicts the obligation of
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the USPS to protect voting by mail throughout California,
which is now commonplace and will remain essential to our
democracy.
6)Declares that the USPS has the authority to reinstate
overnight delivery standards in order to hasten mail delivery
and to prevent shutdowns of mail sorting centers.
7)Urges Congress to require the USPS to restore service
standards in effect as of July 1, 2012, and place a moratorium
on planned shutdowns of mail sorting centers, and further
urges Congress to oppose any postal reform legislation that
does not continue the mandate for six-day delivery service or
does not protect door-to-door delivery as it currently exists.
8)Urges the Secretary of State to publicly oppose changes in the
USPS that negatively impact the rights of California voters
who vote by an absentee ballot.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Provides, under the U.S. Constitution, that Congress has the
power to establish post offices and post roads. Establishes
the USPS as an independent establishment of the executive
branch of the U.S. government. (U.S. Constitution, Art. 1,
Sec. 8; 39 U.S.C. Sec. 201.)
2)Provides that the USPS shall be operated as a basic and
fundamental service provided to the people by the U.S.
government and shall have as its basic function the obligation
to provide postal services to bind the nation together through
the personal, educational, literary and business
correspondence of the people and to provide prompt, reliable
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and efficient services to patrons in all areas and shall
render postal services to all communities. (39 U.S.C. Sec.
101.)
3)Requires the USPS to provide a maximum degree of effective and
regular postal services to rural areas, communities and small
towns where post offices are not self-sustaining. Provides
that no small post office shall be closed solely for operating
at a deficit, it being the specific intent of the Congress
that effective postal services be insured to residents of both
urban and rural communities. In determining all policies for
postal services, requires the USPS to give the highest
consideration to the requirement for the most expeditious
collection, transportation and delivery of important letter
mail. (Id.)
FISCAL EFFECT: As currently in print this measure is keyed
fiscal.
COMMENTS: This measure, sponsored by the California State
Association of Letter Carriers, addresses recent actions by the
USPS that have resulted in closures of distribution centers,
losses of jobs and degradation in the quality of postal service
provided by the USPS. According to the author:
The USPS is seeking ways to cut costs to its operations
in disregard to the service it is mandated to provide.
Most of the unfunded costs they are facing are due to
actions taken by [C]ongress to restructure their future
retiree health benefit program. Due to these financial
issues they are moving to close processing plants across
the state. These plant closures would further slow down
the already delayed mail delivery provided by the USPS.
Furthermore these closures would seriously impact vote by
mail delivery across the state.
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Additionally, being proposed by the USPS are cuts to
Saturday delivery and replacing door to door delivery
with cluster boxes for all residential customers.
Providing fewer services and less quality will cause more
customers to seek other options. Rural Americans,
businesses, senior citizens, and veterans will be hurt
the most by ending Saturday mail and removing customer's
direct home delivery.
Quick Background on the USPS. On a typical day, the USPS
processes and delivers 512.8 million pieces of mail to
residences and businesses throughout the U.S. including rural,
urban, and suburban communities. (USPS, One day in the life of
the U.S. Postal Service?by the numbers
.) Helping to deliver this mail are the 617,000 USPS
employees. (USPS, Size and scope
.)
In some rural places, it is the physical presence of the post
office that defines the community. In other more urbanized
settings, the post office provides important special services
such as facilitating passport renewals and providing post office
boxes and reliable shipping options for young entrepreneurs.
As the USPS works to redefine its role within the shipping and
mail delivery sector, it faces very real fiscal challenges. In
federal fiscal year 2014, the USPS registered a loss of $5.5
billion, down from a loss of $15.9 billion in fiscal 2012.
(Josh Wikes, Postal Service lost $5.5 billion in 2014 despite
more gains in operating revenue, Washington Post, Nov. 14,
2014.) There are a variety of contributing factors that affect
both the revenues and expenditures of the USPS. On the revenue
side, the volume of first class mail continues to decline as
more individuals and businesses turn to the Internet to connect
socially and economically. Much of the mail delivered to homes
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and businesses are flyers and other low cost advertising. On
the expenditure side, costs continue to rise and the USPS has a
limited ability to impact its fixed costs.
USPS Cost Cutting Initiatives. Since 2012, the USPS has
instituted several initiatives aimed at reducing expenses in its
mail delivery and processing systems as part of a broader effort
to address its fiscal challenges and move towards financial
viability. Some of these initiatives include changing its
delivery standards to increase the expected number of days that
it can take to deliver some types of mail, consolidating mail
processing facilities and realigning its operations to capture
potential savings. It is estimated that 35,000 jobs were
eliminated in the first phase of consolidation. (Angela
Greiling Keane, U.S. postal service to cut 35,000 jobs as plants
are shut, Bloomberg Business, February 23, 2012). The second
phase seeks to close an additional 82 processing centers, which
could impact up to 15,000 USPS jobs nationwide. Four processing
plants are slated for closure in California: Eureka, Redding,
Petaluma and City of Industry. The USPS predicts that the
California plant closures will result in a net job loss of
approximately 700 California jobs. (Eric Katz, One map to show
where USPS will cut 7,000 jobs, GovExec.com, September 8, 2014).
The impact of these closures to consumers is slower mail
delivery.
Additionally, there have been efforts in Congress to eliminate
door-to-door mail delivery. The USPS has begun strongly
encouraging new developments to use cluster boxes as it seeks to
reduce door-to-door delivery. (Lisa J. Huriash, Postal Service
ending door-to-door delivery to new developments, South Florida
Sun Sentinel, January 31, 2014). Further efforts in this
direction can be seen with the introduction of H.R. 2748, the
Postal Reform Act of 2013, which sought to end "to the door"
delivery in favor of curbside service or neighborhood cluster
boxes. That bill passed the Committee on Oversight and
Government Reform during the 2013-14 Congress.
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Legislation Introduced in Congress to Address Reductions Has Yet
to be Given a Hearing. Two resolutions have been introduced in
Congress this year seeking to eliminate USPS service cuts and
continue six-day delivery, both issues that are addressed by
this measure. First, H. Res. 12 expresses the sense of the
House that the USPS should continue six-day a week mail service.
That resolution has 212 bipartisan co-sponsors, including 38
members from California. Second, H. Res. 54 expresses the sense
of the House that the USPS should restore service standards in
effect on July 1, 2012. That resolution has 198 bipartisan
co-sponsors, including 40 from California. Both resolutions
have been referred to the House Committee on Oversight of
Government Reform, but neither measure has yet received a
hearing.
Prior Legislation: SJR 15 (Hancock), Res. Chap. 122, Stats.
2013, urged Congress to pass legislation that reflects the value
and intent set forth in the Postal Service Protection Act of
2013 in order to ensure the modernization and preservation of
the USPS.
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: In support of the measure, the California
Rural Letter Carriers' Association writes: "We fully believe
that this resolution is needed to address the United States
Postal Service's plan to shut down mail sorting centers across
the California state. It is a great concern for all of us that
their ongoing plans to eliminate 6-day delivery service and
phase out door-to-door mail delivery as it currently exists
would cause great impact not only on the postal employees by
negatively [a]ffect businesses, communities and the economy.
Not only does this affect us, but the US military employees who
represent 22% who come back to work for the United States Postal
Service after duty."
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Adds the California Labor Federation: "Protecting mail services
protects California workers and ensures stability for the
millions relying on the direct [mail] delivery."
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
California State Association of Letter Carriers (sponsor)
California American Postal Workers Union
California Federation of National Active and Retired Federal
Employees Association
California Labor Federation
California Rural Letter Carriers' Association
National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association
National Association of Postal Supervisors
National Postal Mail Handlers Union
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Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by:Leora Gershenzon and Estevan Villarreal /
JUD. / (916) 319-2334