Pricing & Cost Control

Hughes adds that historical evidence indicates that increased pricing flexibility could be very harmful to smaller-circulation periodicals unless there is a strong regulatory safeguard. Instead of jettisoning the existing system, he maintains, it could be improved, largely through empowerment of the postal rate commission and continuation of aggressive cost-control measures initiated by the postmaster general.

Another point of contention, notes ABM: If six-days-a-week delivery to every address is unsustainable without imposing unreasonable costs on mailers, then "universal service" should be redefined. In the media group's view, the nation should not seek a postal system that provides a high level of service that no one can afford.

Finally, ABM recommends that the new board of governors' appointees possess the same degree of expertise and business knowledge that characterize the members of the presidential commission on the Postal Service.