Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Postmasters Fairness and Rights Act, which will allow our nation's postmasters to take an active and constructive role in managing their post offices and discussing compensation issues. I am joined by Senators Durbin and Sarbanes in offering this legislation.

Currently, Postmasters lack an equitable process for discussing pay and benefits and have seen an erosion of their role in improving the quality of mail services to postal patrons and managing their local post offices. These inequities have contributed to the decline in the number of Postmasters since the reorganization of the Postal Service thirty years ago.

Our bill would create a positive and fair procedure to address the inequalities that have resulted from the present "consultative process." This would foster better mail services by investing Postmasters with greater input in operational decision-making, improving Postmasters' morale, and helping attract and retain qualified Postmasters. The measure would also define "Postmaster" for the first time.

Mr. President, the Postal Service estimates that seven million customers a day transact business at post offices. We expect timely delivery of the mail, six days a week, and the Postal Service does not disappoint us. Given the regularity of mail delivery and the number of Americans visiting post offices daily, it is no wonder that we have come to view our neighborhood post offices as cornerstones of our communities. In fact, many of our towns and cities have developed around a post office where the postmaster served as the town's only link to the federal government.

Our nation's postmasters are on the front line to ensure that the mail gets delivered in a timely manner, and they have helped fuel the infrastructure that boosted the performance ratings of the Postal Service to an all-time high in 1999. Despite these successes, there remains the question of pay and compensation, which this bill addresses. I would also like to note that a House companion bill, H.R. 3842, introduced on March 8, 2000, enjoys bipartisan support from 113 cosponsors. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation. Thank you Mr. President. I ask unanimous consent that the bill be printed in full in the Record.