MPA Government Affairs Council Meets with Congressional Leaders and White House Staff in Final Push for Postal Reform In a positive development for Postal Reform as the legislative process enters the home stretch, the MPA Government Affairs Council (GAC) had successful meetings in Washington, DC with Congressional leaders and White House staff on June 21, to advocate for
	(l-r) Senator Tom Carper, and Cathie Black, President, Hearst Magazines		passage of the Senate version of Postal Reform.

The group also stressed the importance of the two most vital issues for the magazine industry: rate indexing with a hard cap based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), and repeal of the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) escrow requirement with military pension costs returned to the Treasury. 

MPA GAC members met with the Senates chief Postal Reform sponsors, Senator Susan Collins and Senator Tom Carper, as well as Postal Reform leaders in the House, Rep. John McHugh, Rep. Henry Waxman, and Rep. Carolyn Maloney, all of whom are expected to be named House conferees for the House-Senate conference committee.  Reaching out to House Leadership, an MPA delegation also met with the House Majority Whip, Rep. Roy Blunt.  The day concluded with MPA representatives and member-company CEOs meeting with Joel Kaplan, White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, who has been designated as the Bush Administrations chief negotiator on Postal Reform.

The Senators, members of Congress, and the White House were all upbeat in their assessments of Postal Reforms chances of passage.  They all expressed the goal of getting Postal Reform through the conference committee and to the Presidents desk for his signature before the August recess, with Rep. Blunt adding, Its time to get this done. 

Senator Carper said that he was a full partner with Senator Collins in their bipartisan effort to get Postal Reform passed.  Senator Collins, Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, predicted that the legislation would be approved and sent to the President by August 1, and said that she would be meeting later in the week with her House counterpart, Chairman Tom Davis of the House Government Reform Committee, to exchange views and map strategy for the conference. 

The MPA delegation to the White House thanked President Bush for starting the processes by appointing his postal study commission in 2003.  The group had a thorough and candid discussion, and Mr. Kaplan said that the President was committed to finishing the process of bringing Postal Reform to fruition.

John Griffin, President, Magazine Group, National Geographic Society; Edward Lewis, Chairman & Founder, of Essence Communications, Inc.; Cathie Black , President, Hearst Magazines; Senator Susan Collins; Senator Tom Carper; and Nina Link, President & CEO, MPA	Howard Schwartz, Executive Dirrector, Distribution Sourcing & Postal Affairs, Conde Nast Publications; Jerry Hadenfeldt, Director, Government Relations, Meredith Corporation; and Senator Carper
Senator Carper and Terry Adamson, EVP, National Geographic Society	Edward Lewis and Senator Collins