KENTUCKY BRANCH OF THE NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POSTMASTERS
Updated: 5/17/2012
Contact us at: kyleaguepm@yahoo.com
The National League of Postmasters is Committed to the welfare of Postmasters, OICs, PMRs and EAS employees, the LEAGUE represents all its members through alliance with officials of the U.S. Postal Service and members of Congress on Capitol Hill.
National Convention July 29th - August 2nd - see Events
April 17, 2012
Postal Legislation: Senate Cloture Vote on Motion to Proceed Passes S. 1789 Goes to Senate Floor
The Senate Motion for Cloture on the Motion to Proceed passed this time around, 74 to 22.. The brings S. 1789 to the floor of the Senate for debate. The first item of business will to be substitute the managers’ amendment, see section by section analysis here, and then debate will occur and other possible amendments will be possible. It is not clear how long the Senate bill will remain on the floor. Some have suggested that the Republicans could keep it on the floor for up to two weeks in order to eat up Senate legislative time during an election time. We will see. Both Maryland Senators, liberal democrats both, voted against the Motion, thus probably indicating that some bad feelings between them and Senator Carper remain
April 19, 2012
Postal Legislation: Behind-the-Scenes Maneuvers Continue as Senate Considers Postal Legislation
There are some 79 amendments that have been officially noticed for S. 1789 and the Senate is in the process of trying to narrow down those that will simply be accepted by the managers of the bill, those that will have a vote, and those that will have neither a vote nor be accepted. The idea is to eliminate all (or as many as they can) of the non-germane amendments to the bill, and get senators with very similar amendments to combine their amendments.
Among them is a McCaskill/Merkley amendment that the League supports that will further improve small rural post offices position in the legislation, and other amendments to better the bill. There is also an amendment by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) to eliminate the postal monopoly, and another Rand amendment to drive up the premiums of the Federal Employee Health Benefits system.
Negotiations are intense and senators are pushing hard for their positions. A very strong contingent is insisting on yet better protections for small rural post offices--a position we strongly support.
April 18, 2012
Postal Legislation: Senate Continues with Consideration of S. 1789 Attempts to limit Amendments Only to Those Relevant to the Postal Bill
Today, the Senate continues its intermittent consideration of S. 1789 as Senators are giving speeches on the Postal Service, small post offices, and the current state of postal affairs. Democratic and Republican leaders are working on an agreement to limit amendments only to those relevant to postal matters. They have called for all Senators to submit to them any amendment they wish to offer to the bill. The deadline for the submissions was 1:00 pm today.
Senate Debate on S.1789 Amendments will Continue on CSPAN 2 late into Monday Evening.
April 23, 2012
Postal Legislation: Postal Legislation; The Deals Continue
The National League of Postmasters is continuing to monitor the deal making and political maneuvering of all sorts continued over the weekend. The postal bill and amendments are scheduled to go to a vote tomorrow, Tuesday around 2:15 p.m., although that time could easily change. It will be cablecast on CSPAN 2. I would not be surprised to see some postal speeches on the floor today, although the votes will be tomorrow.
At this point, the number of amendments have decreased to 39 and rewriting is ongoing in order to make amendments more palatable to a broader group. Indeed, several amendments might be combined and offered up by unanimous consent. We also we expect some senators to back off of some of the other amendments. Don’t be surprised, then, when Tuesday rolls around, to see a narrower field of amendments. More Information...
April 24, 2012
Senate Consideration of S. 1789 Continues. Final Vote on Passage Set for Wednesday.
Washington - Tuesday April 24 2012. Today the Senate actually started voting on amendments to S. 1789. The first vote was a critical vote on waiving a budgetary point of order. It passed and the budgetary point of order was waived. This was necessary because of the quirky way CBO calculates a score and its failure to adjust for the Postal Service’s unique on/off budget situation which gives S 1789 a positive score. Thus, it appears that passage of the bill would cost the government money, even though that is not the case.
Among the amendments adopted were ones by Senators Tester, McCaskil, Bennett, and Blunt that give further protections to communities to avoid post office closings, and set a one year moratorium, although it would let the Postal Service reduce hours if appropriate.
Among those amendments that failed was one extending the moratorium from going from 6 day to 5 day delivery beyond two years. There were several negative amendments, notably ones by Senator Corker (R TN), McCain (R AZ) and Paul (R KY) that would have destroyed the Postal Service which also failed.
About half the amendments have been considered. The other half should be considered tomorrow as should a vote on final passage. So far, things look pretty good for passage. The vote on the budget waive was a very good sign.
April 25, 2012
S. 1789 Passes Out of Senate
Mark Strong, President of the LEAGUE, wishes to thank Senators Lieberman, Collins, Brown, Carper and all the other senators for the hard work that went into S. 1789. I want to congratulate the senators on their effort and the fact that they showed that legislation can still work, especially with this very difficult bill. The LEAGUE is pleased with the amendments that strengthened S. 1789 that gave extra protection to rural post offices and dealt with some of the overpayment issues, specifically the FERS overpayment. Click to view text to s.1789
April 25, 2012
Washington, D.C., April 25, 2012 - Senate Passes Postal Bill - Rural Post Offices Get Support, New Restrictions on Closing Added
Today, the United States Senate passed S. 1789, the 21st Century Postal Act of 2012, in a bi-partisan fashion 62 to 37. The bill gives rural post offices more support and adds on a number of restrictions to the Postal Service’s ability to close them. Clearly, the Senate was not at all pleased with the behavior of the Postal Service in attempting to close thousands of small post offices over the last year or two. The bill contained a moratorium on closing small post offices in rural areas for one year, as well a moratorium of going to five-day delivery for two years.
From a broader perspective, the bill returns some $11 billion of overpaid FERS money back to the Postal Service, allowing some to be used for buyouts, and the remainder to be used to pay down its debt and to cover other employee benefits, such as workers’ compensation, pensions and health care. Further, the bill also begins a 40-year amortized payment schedule for the Postal Service to fund the rest of its retirees’ health benefits and would calculate those payments using the same discount rate that is used for the major federal government retirement funds. More Information...
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Postmaster Pay Package Announced
After months of trying to get a pay packaged that was agreeable, the Postal Service released the pay package that all parties have found common ground on. LEAGUE and NAPUS had decided to take the pay package to third party mediation at one point in the consultative process. All parties felt that an agreement could be reached without outside intervention. In December of 2011 we went back to the table. Although far from the perfect pay package, we believe it is fair to all parties and in line with the financial difficulties facing the Postal Service while recognizing the hard work of Postmasters.
During the debate of S. 1789 two things should be noted, Congress felt that even top management should feel the pain of the cuts going on in the post office. Amendments were placed in the bill that cut the top management of the organization and amendments were introduced to get postal employees health care contributions in line with the federal government. By 2015 of this pay package, Postmasters and PCES employees will be contributing the 28 percent that all federal employees pay. Postmasters have done more than their part to contribute to the bottom line of health care costs. The pay package can be found here
Pay for FY/11 and FY/12 will be froze. This is not unlike any of the other contracts and follows the federal government pay freeze. Applying PFP for FY/13 will be subject to the Postal Service’s review of compensation practices throughout the United States economy. Based on that review, PFP program ratings will either be suspended or applied to salary determinations. Raises based off PFP are locked in for FY/14 and FY/15.
The minimums and maximums for salaries are being raised by 1% in FY/12, 1.5% in FY/13 and 2% both both FY/14 and FY/15. This is a 6.5% raise in salary maximum s for the life of the agreement.
May 9, 2012
3 Digit Meetings - see Events
