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Reid says he'll plow ahead on postal reform
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) sounded a bit impatient on Tuesday about the pace of postal reform negotiations, and pledged to move legislation on the matter in the coming weeks.
Supporters of a bipartisan postal bill — from Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Scott Brown (R-Mass.) – had hoped their measure would hit the floor weeks ago.
But a group of Democratic senators, led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), has expressed some concern with that bill from the Senate Homeland Security Committee, and Sanders has said he is working on his own plan to reform postal operations with a group of senators.
"I think the only we are going to get the postal reform bill done is bring it to the floor. I think that there's negotiations going on endlessly, and I think those have to come to an end. And so I'm going to bring that to the floor as quickly as I can within the next weeks," Reid told reporters on Tuesday.
Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have also lodged complaints about
the Postal Service moving ahead with a plan that could close scores of
processing centers. And on the other side of the Capitol, House
Republicans have yet to push their bill any further.
A spokeswoman for Carper said that the senator also was ready to move the process along, while a spokesman for Sanders welcomed Reid's decision.
"This is ultimately leadership’s decision with regard to timing but Sen. Carper is looking forward to debating the bill with his colleagues and passing it sooner rather than later so we can get the Postal Service the tools and resources it needs to survive," spokeswoman Emily Spain told The Hill.
"He wants the bill on the floor,” said Michael Briggs, a spokesman for Sanders. “That ultimately is the only way to get differences resolved."
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