Yesterday, the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) handed down what will—hopefully—be the final word on the 4.3 percent exigent rate hike (or surcharge) that was granted in late 2013 and the subject of litigation for the last 18+months.  That is, the PRC, through an expedited process, made a decision to address issues presented in the exigent rate case that was recently remanded to the Commission by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers v. Postal Regulatory Commission, 2015 WL 3513394 (D.C. Cir. June 5, 2015).

At 4pm Tuesday, the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) announced its approval of an exigent rate increase of 4.3%, the full amount requested in September by the U.S. Postal Service. Commented David LeDuc, SIIA’s senior director, public policy, “We are extremely disappointed that the PRC chose to move forward with the exigent rate increase, as this action places a significant cost burden on many of our members. With the previously approved CPI increase of 1.7% and the announcement today of the 4.3% exigent rate increase, the full amount of this year’s increase equals 6.0%. The only bright spot in the Commission’s ruling today was the denial of the Postal Service’s request to make the increases permanent, instead the Commission ruled the exigent increase is only applicable for ‘less than two years.’”