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CNN Sunday Morning

Interview With Neal Denton

Aired June 30, 2002 - 08:22   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Critics say raising stamp prices is like putting a band-aid on a financial hemorrhage that has kept the post office operating in the red for years. We asked a Postal Service representative to join us this morning, but they declined. But joining me from Washington is Neal Denton, the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers. Hi, Neal.

NEIL DENTON, ALLIANCE OF NONPROFIT MAILERS: How are you this morning?

PHILLIPS: Very good. Well, case in point, these hikes are going to happen every couple of years whether we like it or not, right?

DENTON: Well, it's become ridiculous. We're spending more time waiting in lines at postal facilities to get add-on stamps. Just last year, the Postal Service still lost $1.7 billion even after two rate increases. They are going to lose another $1.5 billion even after the increase today.

PHILLIPS: And some post offices have to spend $5 just to generate $1 of revenue. This can't last very much longer, can it? They are going to have to close down?

DENTON: You're right. We have a serious problem here, and we've got to make a decision as to what it is that we want with our Postal Service. If we want it to operate like a business without any support from Congress, then we're going to have to give it some freedom of flexibility to close facilities that are not profitable, to make the kind of cuts and to be competitive, to be able to contract with larger mailers on lower rates.

But if we don't want that, if we decide that we want the Postal Service to be this public service enterprise and to make sure that we have universal service at a lower rate, then I think we are going to have to look at supporting it a little bit more with federal funds.

PHILLIPS: All right. What is being done on Capitol Hill to address the problems? And I want you to talk about the president possibly announcing a presidential commission on this.

DENTON: Well, there are really three different things that I think are going on at the same time to address this problem, and hopefully, we are going to have some success. The Senate side asked the Postal Service to take a good, hard look at itself and present a transformation plan, and the Postal Service did that. In April, the clip you saw of Jack Potter was when he was delivering that plan.

In that plan, they looked at how to address their problems with people, prices and products, and allowing them some more flexibility to operate like a business.

So the Senate asked them to do that, and that's done. The House side worked on a very large comprehensive postal reform measure that was just defeated recently up in committee. It's not going to go anywhere here as we close out the 107th Congress. It might serve, though, as a starting point for next year.

But I think a lot of us now are looking to the White House. We've had a lot of discussions with folks at the White House and the administration about the likelihood of creating a presidential commission to take a look at the health and vitality of the national mail delivery network, what it is we want the Postal Service to be in the future.

PHILLIPS: Do you think it's possible that the feds could go hands-off and this could become a private -- privatized situation?

DENTON: Of course it's possible; I don't think it's likely, though. The Postal Service is too large and important part of our natural fabric to sort of let it go to chance. You can't let the Postal Service tank out. We have to make sure that there is a soft landing on this and that the larger policies and moving the mail are addressed.

PHILLIPS: Before we let you go, we have got to bring up that new stamp -- I love it -- with the firefighters raising the flag. Support your local Postal Service, get out there and buy this stamp, entitled "Heroes." I was really excited to see this at the post office. We had to brag about it, Neal.

DENTON: Well, you know, it's for consumers who are going to the post office to wait in long lines, this is a real hardship, because you have to wait to get the new stamps. So for those organizations that rely on direct mail to raise funds or disseminate information, magazines are going to have 10 percent rate increases. This is going to be a heavy hit to an awful lot of mailers out there, and we desperately need the White House to take a look at this and for Congress to take some action to make sure that this constant stream of postal rate increases is addressed.

PHILLIPS: Neal Denton of the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers, thanks, Neal.

DENTON: Thank you.

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