At the request of Congress and the Comptroller General, we are preparing a comprehensive transformation plan — to help shape the future of the Postal Service.

BLUEPRINT FOR OUR FUTURE
The plan will identify actions to help us manage more effectively and better serve the nation. It will also look at potential moderate legislative changes to provide us with better tools to meet the needs of our customers. And it will identify the long-term, comprehensive changes that will define and support the role of the Postal Service well into the 21st century.

To help guide the plan’s creation, we have asked for input from our primary stakeholders — Congress, mailers, the Postal Rate Commission, and our employee unions and management associations. Moreover, we requested input via Federal Register notice. We have also issued An Outline for Discussion: Concepts for Postal Transformation. It takes a fresh look at our options, challenges and opportunities, helping stakeholders to offer well-informed input. It’s posted on our website, www.usps.com/strategicdirection. We expect to issue the plan in March 2002.

LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITY
The 106th Congress passed the 2001 Treasury/Postal Appropriations bill. It provided $96 million to reimburse the Postal Service Fund for free and reduced-rate mail. Of that, $67 million provides free mail for the blind and overseas voters. The bill reduced federal and postal employee retirement contributions by 0.4% and allows them to contribute an additional 1% annually to the Thrift Savings Plan, with a maximum of 10% for Civil Service Retirement System employees and 15% for Federal Employees Retirement System employees.

The Congress passed and the President signed the 2002 appropriations to fund free and reduced-rate mail. The Treasury, Postal Service and General Government Appropriations Act, Public Law 107-67, provides $76.6 million funding for this mail, with approximately $47.6 million deferred until October 1, 2002. It provides for continued free mail for the blind and overseas voters.

The Act extends the Breast Cancer Research stamp through 2003; requires the issuance of a semipostal stamp (a stamp used to raise funds in support of a designated cause or charity) in 2002 to aid families of emergency relief workers killed or permanently disabled while on duty as a result of the September 11 terrorist attacks against our nation; requires the issuance of a semipostal stamp to help fund programs against domestic violence; and continues air transportation of baby chicks as mail.