Congressman Issa Having Trouble Getting GOP Support for His Postal Reform Bill

Congressman Darrell Issa and Congressman Dennis Ross has said H.R. 2309 is the only bill that will save the Postal Service. But it looks like no else is buying that story: From National Journal via PostCom.org

National Journal: Republican leaders appear unable to muster votes for their preferred version-from House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif.-but they are so far also unwilling to take up an alternative that the Senate passed last month with support from both parties. Without enactment of an overhaul bill, the self-supporting agency, which announced a $3.2 billion loss last quarter, has said it will default this fall on payments it owes. Working from that timeline, House Republicans are assuming that their real deadline to take action will come in August or later. House GOP leaders say they want to move Issa’s bill. “The postal service needs more meaningful reform than the Senate bill provides,” Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said. “They don’t even have enough Republican support,” said, Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee that oversees the postal service. Lynch, a supporter of postal unions that oppose the collective-bargaining changes in Issa’s bill, said Republicans will eventually have to bring up the Senate-passed bill and try to amend it. Not yet ready to concede that necessity, House Republicans appear stalled. They have placed no postal legislation on the House floor this week, and the chamber will be in recess starting this weekend and will not vote again until May 30. That means there will be no House action on a bill until June at the earliest.