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105 IRET Congressional Advisory 1 (2000)

handle is hein.taxfoundation/iretcgadv0102 and id is 1 raw text is: Avsry May 23, 2000 No. 105 THE POSTAL SERVICE SHOULD KEEP ITS HANDS OFF E-COMMERCE The U.S. Postal Service and its predecessor, the U.S. Post Office Department, have been delivering mail for more than two centuries. Increasingly, however, the Postal Service's top officials appear to wish the government agency were also a dot-com company. As a symbol of its dot-com aspirations, the U.S. Postal Service has exchanged its previous Internet address of www.usps.gov for new.usps.com. Postmaster General William J. Henderson has declared, E-commerce is a passion of [Tihe Postal S mine. 1 This focus is appear to iv troubling because it disregards agency were the principle that, as part of company... Th the federal government, the because it disr Postal Service's business activities should be strictly that, a r limited and that it is not the mission of government to be a business acti business. strictly limited the mission of The Postal Service Looks business. To E-Commerce. According to the Postal Service, its long experience with what many people now call snail mail has given it the technical and organizational tools to become a major, successful provider of Internet services to homes and businesses. Furthermore, the Postal Service hopes that its status as a government agency and the public's confidence and familiarity with its service would make it the provider of choice for millions of potential customers. It contends that many people would prefer conducting electronic commerce through the Postal Service rather than turning to the enormous array of e-commerce services offered by a growing number of private-sector firms. The Postal Service provides some on-line tools to customers at its Web site that directly assist in its core mission of non-urgent letter delivery. Those support-role services, such as an on-line ZIP code book and an on-line Post Office locator, are convenient, well liked, and noncontroversial; they put the Internet to good use. The Postal Service has much loftier ambitions, however. Its goal is to become a leading Internet player. Since 1998, for instance, the Postal Service has sought (unsuccessfully so far) to gain control over a large block of Internet addresses - those with the top level domain us - which are now used primarily by thousands of state, local, and other government entities ervice's top) o fficials h the government also a dot-corn isfiocus is troubling egards the principle t of the fiederal e Postal Service's vities should be and that it is not government to be a e-mail. Recently, throughout the country. The Postal Service optimistically argued that its achievements, among them the ability to forward letters, shows it has the skill to develop this chunk of the Internet into what it has characterized as a variety of socially desirable and profitable services, such as a Postal-Service-approved Internet yellow pages. The Postal Service's latest e-commerce product is USPS Electronic Postmark, a feature verifying the time and date of the Postal Service has been touting USPS eBillPay, an Internet-based bill paying service that it features prominently on its Web site. The Postal Service is assuming that its government status will attract e-payment customers, but it Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation IRET is a non-profit, tax exempt 501(c)(3) economic policy research and educational organization devoted to informing the public about policies that will promote economic growth and efficient operation of the free market economy. 1730 K Street, NWV., Suite 910, Washington, D.C. 20006 Voice 202-463-1400 e Fax 202-463-6199 0 Internet www.iret.org

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