Chairman Burton Reaffirms Call to End of Politics as Usual in Solving Postal Crisis.

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 1, 2001

Joins Wientzen at DMA Government Affairs

Conference in DC for Call to Work Together

Speaking at The Direct Marketing Association's (The DMA) annual Government Affairs Conference in Washington, DC, Chairman Dan Burton (R-IN) joined H. Robert Wientzen, president & CEO, The DMA, in calling for an end to politics as usual to solve the present postal crisis with much-needed legislative reform.

Burton, who chairs the House Government Reform Committee, announced that he believed the postal crisis to be of such major importance to the national economy that he followed up his recent letter to the White House with a personal request to Secretary of Commerce Donald L. Evans for assistance in raising the visibility of the crisis within the Administration.

Burton told the assembly of direct and interactive marketers that all postal community stakeholders must work together. This includes: labor as well as both political parties to update the 31-year-old law that is hobbling the United States Postal Service's (USPS) ability to compete in the 21st Century. Burton said that a great opportunity exists for reform if all of the stakeholders work together. If they do not, reform will not be possible.

"We welcome Chairman Burton's attention to solving the postal crisis with meaningful reform," Wientzen said. "The postal crisis is accelerating daily and the Chairman's focus is helping us to alert all of the parties that must help to solve the problem. This includes: the White House, Congress, labor unions and other stakeholders at a time when we need to focus attention to the problem and feasible solutions."

"We are extremely concerned that if Congress does not reform the Postal Service, its death spiral will continue until it's too late. This will hurt business, consumers, direct marketers and the entire U.S. economy," Wientzen reported.

Noting that electronic and private delivery competitors are going to continue to challenge the USPS, Burton sketched out the basic outline of the elements necessary for meaningful postal reform legislation. Similar to DMA's continuing calls for reform, Burton said that the key to USPS's long-term survivability lays in the ability to enact reform quickly. Reform must include the ability to provide universal service, increased flexibility over labor costs, true performance management incentives and new performance standards.

"Chairman Burton's call to enlist the help of labor unions in building a bi-partisan, legislative coalition to push for postal reform is key to ensuring the long-term health of the Postal Service," said Ed Gleiman, who is spearheading the DMA's postal reform efforts. "It is critically important to get all of the stakeholders on board if we are going to do all of the difficult things necessary to revamp the Postal Service," added Gleiman, who formerly served as chairman of the Postal Rate Commission (PRC).

The DMA is the leading and largest trade association for businesses interested in direct, database and interactive marketing, with nearly 5,000 member companies from the United States and 53 other nations. Founded in 1917, its members include direct marketers from every business segment as well as the nonprofit and electronic marketing sectors, including catalogers, Internet Service Providers, dot-coms, financial services providers, book and magazine publishers, book and music clubs, retail stores, industrial manufacturers and a host of other vertical segments, including the service industries that support them. According to a DMA-commissioned study, direct and interactive marketing sales in the United States exceeded $1.7 trillion in 2000, including $110 billion in catalog sales and $24 billion in sales generated by the Internet. The DMA's Web Site is www.the-dma.org and its consumer Web site is www.shopthenet.org.