Henry Waxman: “the gentleman from Indiana described the President's Commission on Postal Reform. Many of the broad outlines of that…”

“the gentleman from Indiana described the President's Commission on Postal Reform. Many of the broad outlines of that Commission's recommendations are in the legislation before us today. The legislation before us today is supported by not Democrats, not just Republicans, but by labor unions and management, the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Federation of Independent Businesses, Small Business Legislative Council, and the postal unions. And I will not go through all of them, but all the newspapers, the publishers, the mailers, all the people that look to the Postal Service for their service. This amendment, when we get right to what the amendment is all about, is to take the one out of nine seats on the Board of Governors away from a union representative. The Postal Service has 700,000 career employees. They are the ones who make the system work. Are they not entitled to have one representative on this board? This idea of giving them representation is backed by labor, management, business. We have all worked cooperatively together on postal reform legislation. They have built trust and made compromises. That is why this legislation is so broadly supported. This amendment would undermine the consensus behind the legislation. It singles out one group and says they lose, they lose their seat on the Board. That may be good politics for people who want to say they are antiunions, but it is not good for this legislation or for the Postal Service.…”