Special Message to the Congress on Postal Reform.

To the Congress of the United States:

Total reform of the nation's postal system is absolutely essential.

The American people want dependable, reasonably priced mail service, and postal employees want the kind of advantages enjoyed by workers in other major industries. Neither goal can be achieved within the postal system we have today.

The Post Office is not keeping pace with the needs of our expanding population or the rightful aspirations of our postal workers.

Encumbered by obsolete facilities, inadequate capital, and outdated operation practices, the Post Office Department is failing the mail user in terms of service, failing the taxpayer in terms of cost, and failing the postal worker in terms of truly rewarding employment. It is time for a change.

Two years ago, Lawrence F. O'Brien, then Postmaster General, recognized that the Post Office was in "a race with catastrophe," and made the bold proposal that the postal system be converted into a government-owned corporation. As a result of Mr. O'Brien's recommendations, a Presidential Commission was established to make a searching study of our postal system. After considering all the alternatives, the Commission likewise recommended a government corporation. Last January, President Johnson endorsed that recommendation in his State of the Union message.

One of my first actions as President was to direct Postmaster General Winton M. Blount to review that proposal and others.

He has made his own first-hand study of the problems besetting the postal service, and after a careful analysis has reported to me that only a complete reorganization of the postal system can avert the steady deterioration of this vital public service.

I am convinced that such a reorganization is essential. The arguments are overwhelming and the support is bipartisan. Postal Reform is not a partisan political issue, it is an urgent national requirement.

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES AND WORKING CONDITIONS

For many years the postal worker walked a dead-end street. Promotions all too often were earned by the right political connections rather than by merit. This Administration has taken steps to eliminate political patronage in the selection of postal employees; but there is more-much more--that must be done.

Postal employees must be given a work environment comparable to that found in the finest American enterprises. Today, particularly in our larger cities, postal workers labor in crowded, dismal, old fashioned buildings that are little short of disgraceful. Health services, employee facilities, training programs and other benefits enjoyed by the worker in private industry and in other Federal agencies are, all too often, unavailable to the postal worker. In an age when machines do the heavy work for private companies, the postal worker still shoulders, literally, the burden of the nation's mail. That mail fills more than a billion sacks a year; and the men and women who move those sacks need help.

Postal employees must have a voice in determining their conditions of employment. They must be given a stake in the quality of the service the Department provides the public; they must be given a reason for pride in themselves and in the job they do. The time for action is now.

HIGHER DEFICITS AND INCREASING RATES

During all but seventeen years since 1838, when deficit financing became a way of life for the Post Office, the postal system has cost more than it has earned.

In this fiscal year, the Department will drain over a billion dollars from the national treasury to cover the deficit incurred in operating the Post Office. Over the last decade, the tax money used to shore up the postal system has amounted to more than eight billion dollars. Almost twice that amount will be diverted from the Treasury in the next ten years if the practices of the past are continued. We must not let that happen.

The money to meet these huge postal deficits comes directly out of the taxpayer's pocket--regardless of how much he uses the mails. It is bad business, bad government, and bad politics to pour this kind of tax money into an inefficient postal service. Every taxpayer in the United States--as well as every user of the mails--has an important stake in seeing that the Federal Government institutes the kind of reform that is needed to give the nation a modern and well managed postal system. Without such a system Congress will either have to raise postage rates far above any level presently contemplated, or the taxpayers will have to shoulder the burden of paying postal deficits the like of which they have never seen before.

Neither alternative is acceptable. The nation simply cannot afford the cost of maintaining an inefficient postal system. The will of the Congress and the will of the people is clear. They want fast, dependable and low-cost mail service. They want an end to the continuing cycle of higher deficits and increasing rates.

QUALITY POSTAL SERVICE

The Post Office is a business that provides a vital service which its customers, like the customers of a private business, purchase directly. A well managed business provides dependable service; but complaints about the quality of postal service under existing procedures are widespread. While most mail ultimately arrives at its destination, there is no assurance that important mail will arrive on time; and late mail--whether a birthday card or a proxy statement--is often no better than lost mail.

Delays and breakdowns constantly threaten the mails. A complete breakdown in service did in fact occur in 1966 in one of our largest cities, causing severe economic damage and personal hardship. Similar breakdowns could occur at any time in many of our major post offices. A major modernization program is essential to insure against catastrophe in the Post Office.

A modern postal service will not mean fewer postal workers. Mail volume--tied as it is to economic activity--is growing at such a rate that there will be no cutback in postal jobs even with the most dramatic gains in postal efficiency. Without a modernized postal system, however, more than a quarter of a million new postal workers will be needed in the next decade simply to move the growing mountain of mail. The savings that can be realized by holding employment near present levels can and should mean more pay and increased benefits for the three quarters of a million men and women who will continue to work in the postal service.

OPPORTUNITY THROUGH REFORM

While the work of the Post Office is that of a business enterprise, its organization is that of a political department. Traditionally it has been run as a Cabinet agency of the United States Government-one in which politics has been as important as efficient mail delivery. Under the present system, those responsible for managing the postal service do not have the authority that the managers of any enterprise must have over prices, wages, location of facilities, transportation and procurement activities and personnel policy.

Changes in our society have resulted in changes in the function of the Post Office Department. The postal system must be given a non-political management structure consistent with the job the postal system has to perform as a supplier of vital services to the public. Times change, and now is the time for change in the postal system.

I am, therefore, sending to the Congress reform legislation entitled the Postal Service Act of 1969.

POSTAL SERVICE ACT OF 1969

The reform that I propose represents a basic and sweeping change in direction; the ills of the postal service cannot be cured by partial reform.

The Postal Service Act of 1969 provides for:

• removal of the Post Office from the Cabinet

• creation of an independent Postal Service wholly owned by the Federal Government

• new and extensive collective bargaining rights for postal employees

• bond financing for major improvements

• a fair and orderly procedure for changing postage rates, subject to Congressional review

• regular reports to Congress to facilitate Congressional oversight of the postal system

• a self-supporting postal system.

The new government-owned corporation will be known as the United States Postal Service. It will be administered by a nine-member board of directors selected without regard to political affiliation. Seven members of the board, including the chairman, will be appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. These seven members will select a full-time chief executive officer, who will join with the seven others to select a second full-time executive who will also serve on the board.

Employees will retain their Civil Service annuity rights, veterans preference, and other benefits.

The Postal Service is unique in character. Therefore, there will be, for the first time in history, true collective bargaining in the postal system. Postal employees in every part of the United States will be given a statutory right to negotiate directly with management over wages and working conditions. A fair and impartial mechanism-with provision for binding arbitration-will be established to resolve negotiating impasses and disputes arising under labor agreements.

For the first time, local management will have the authority to work with employees to improve local conditions. A modernization fund adequate to the needs of the service will be available. The postal worker will finally take his rightful place beside the worker in private industry.

The Postal Service will become entirely self-supporting, except for such subsidies as Congress may wish to provide for specific public service groups. The Postal Service, like the Tennessee Valley Authority and similar public authorities, will be able to issue bonds as a means of raising funds needed for expansion and modernization of postal facilities and other purposes.

Proposals for changes in classes of mail or postage rates will be heard by expert rate commissioners, who will be completely independent of operating management. The Board of the Postal Service will review determinations made by the Rate Commissioners on rate and classification questions, and the Presidentially appointed members of the board will be empowered to modify such determinations if they consider it in the public interest to do so.

Congress will have express authority to veto decisions on rate and classification questions.

The activities of the Postal Service will be subject to Congressional oversight, and the Act provides for regular reports to Congress. The Postal Service and the rules by which it operates can, of course, be changed by law at any time.

TOWARD POSTAL EXCELLENCE

Removing the postal system from politics and the Post Office Department from the Cabinet is a sweeping reform.

Traditions die hard and traditional institutions are difficult to abandon. But tradition is no substitute for performance, and if our postal system is to meet the expanding needs of the 1970s, we must act now.

Legislation, by itself, will not move the mail. This must be done by the three-quarter of a million dedicated men and women who today wear the uniform of the postal service. They must be given the right tools--financial, managerial and technological--to do the job. The legislation I propose today will provide those tools.

There is no Democratic or Republican way of delivering the mail. There is only the right way.

This legislation will let the postal service do its job the right way, and I strongly recommend that it be promptly considered and promptly enacted.

RICHARD NIXON

The White House

May 27, 1969