House Bill to Drop Threat to Nonprofit Postage

Nonprofit mailers can breathe a sigh of relief. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is going to remove reduction in the nonprofit postage discount from the pending Postal Service Reform Act before sending it to the House floor, according to a report from Independent Sector. The Senate has already passed a bill  version that would preserve the current nonprofit postage discount rate. In contrast, the House bill introduced by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, had a "cost-savings" provision reducing the discount rate for nonprofit postage by 5% each year for 6 years, effectively cutting the discount from 40% to 10% by 2018! For the full story, go to http://www.independentsector.org/nonprofit_postage_rates

Postal Service Plans Mobile Promotion for Holidays

The U.S. Postal Service is wrapping a holiday gift for direct mailers: a November repeat of this summer's 2% postage discount for mobile barcode usage on mail. The USPS has filed a notice seeking approval for another mobile discount promotion to run Nov.7 to Nov. 21 of this year. The special barcodes in the promotion allow consumers to use smartphones to scan the mail and reach shopping websites. Priority Mail users will get an especially festive deal. For the November promotion, the Postal Service is seeking an extra 1% discount incentive to mailers if their orders are fulfilled using Priority Mail -- as long as purchases made via the qualifying mobile barcodes are delivered between Nov. 9 and the end of the year. For more details on the planned mobile promotion, see the story at http://postandparcel.info/48650/news/companies/usps-to-run-mobile-barcode-mail-promotion-in-november/