Washington, DC, August 15, 2007 — In response to proposed rules issued today by the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) to revise the postal rate setting process, the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) is urging its members to carefully review the proposed rules and consider how their mailing operations would be affected by implementation of these new policies.
The PRC issued proposed rules that would implement the provisions of the Postal Enhancement and Accountability Act, which was passed by Congress last year and signed by President Bush last December 20.  Interested parties must file comments on the PRC’s proposed rules by September 14, 2007.
“As the primary voice for direct mailers, DMA will be reviewing the proposed rules extensively, and paying close attention to what our members have to say,” said Steven K. Berry, DMA’s executive vice president for government affairs and corporate responsibility.  “Postal reform was a long-sought victory for the mailing community.  Now that those reforms are being set into motion, DMA is remaining vigilant in representing mailers’ concerns.”
Over the past several months, DMA has provided three sets of formal comments in response to specific requests by the PRC for preliminary information and comments.
Berry noted that while it is too soon to remark on the substantive aspects of today’s proposed rules, DMA is pleased that the PRC is proceeding with its rulemaking efforts in a timely fashion.  “We continue to hope that the final rules will be implemented in the coming months, and that a potentially disastrous final rate case under the old, outdated system can be avoided,” he said.
In addition to encouraging members to submit individual comments, DMA will be working with other mailing community groups, and developing its own formal comments for submission to the PRC.
To provide DMA members with an opportunity to discuss their concerns about the proposed rules, the postal affairs subcommittee of DMA’s Government Relations Committee will be hosting an open conference call during the week of August 27.  Additional information on this conference call will be communicated via “3D”–DMA Daily Digest as well as in the postal section of the Association’s Web site atwww.the-dma.org/postal.