90TH CONGRESS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES { REPORT CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 18260 SEPTEMBER 10, 1968.-Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed Mr. ANDERSON of Tennessee, from the Committee on Rules, submitted REPORT [To accompany H. Res. 1300] The Committee on Rules, having had under consideration House O 90TH CONGRESS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 2d Session {No. 1886 REPORT APPOINTMENT OF POSTMASTERS SEPTEMBER 10, 1968.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed Mr. Nix, from the Committee on Post Office and Civil Service, submitted the following REPORT together with MINORITY VIEWS [To accompany H.R. 16524] The Committee on Post Office and Civil Service, to whom was referred the bill (H.R. 16524), to provide for the appointment of postmasters, having considered the same, report favorably thereon with amendments and recommend that the bill as amended do pass. The amendments are as follows: 1. Page 1 lines 9 and 10 strike out "which shall be applied in the following order of precedence". 2. Page 2, line 1, strike out "noncompetitive" and insert in lieu thereof "competitive". 3. Page 2, strike out lines 6 to 17, inclusive, and insert in lieu thereof the following: "(2) by competitive examinations in accordance with the provisions of title 5 governing appointments in the competitive service. 4. Page 2, strike out line 20 and all that follows down through the last period in the matter immediately above line 3 on page 3. 5. Page 3, line 3, strike out "3." and insert in lieu thereof "2.". EXPLANATION OF AMENDMENTS Amendment No. 1 retains for the Postmaster General discretion as to whether he will appoint to the position of postmaster by promotion from within the postal service or by open competitive examination of any qualified applicant including those who are not employed in the postal service. Amendment No. 2 equalizes testing procedures for the position of postmaster by requiring that in cases of promotion to such positions from within the service eligibility of applicants will be established by competitive civil service examinations of all qualified postal service employees who wish to compete. Amendment No. 3 restates the law as to the use of the competitive examination procedure for postal employees and other applicants. Lines 6 through 17 on page 2 of the introduced bill would have set up a procedure whereby an open competitive examination could be scheduled only after it was first established that no qualified career employee was available for the postmaster position. Since the order of precedence to which such procedure related was stricken by amendment No. 1 the related procedure is stricken by amendment No. 3. Amendment No. 4 strikes a provision of the introduced bill which would have repealed sections 3312 and 3313 of title 39, United States Code. Such section 3312 sets forth the residence qualifications for postmaster applicants. Section 3313 provides that any Government officer, agent, or employee who is a citizen of the United States is eligible for appointment as a postmaster of a fourth class office in Alaska. Amendment No. 5 is a technical amendment renumbering section 3 as section 2 of the reported bill. PURPOSE It is the purpose of this legislation to reduce political influence in the appointment of postmasters in post offices of the first, second, and third classes by requiring competitive examinations for all career appointments to the positions of postmaster in such offices and by eliminating Senate confirmation for such appointments. STATEMENT HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Thomas Jefferson opposed the political appointment of postmasters by his great rival in American politics, the man who served as the then Postmaster General, Alexander Hamilton. The rivalry between Jefferson and Hamilton began party politics in the United States and condemnation of postmaster appointments began at the same time. Abraham Lincoln found that he could not effectively conduct the Civil War as President because so much of his time was taken up with postmaster appointments. The Ambassador from Great Britain at the time sent his government a negative evaluation of Lincoln's abilities because Lincoln became involved in a conversation with a third party about the postmastership in Chicago during their first meeting. Lincoln once made a remark in regard to jobseekers when he was ill with chickenpox, "send them all in, I have something for everybody today." He finally established a system whereby future Presidents avoided the onus of making postmaster appointments by requiring a letter from a majority party Congressman in the district where the appointment was to be made. This basic procedure has today been dignified with the term the "adviser system." In 1876 the Congress provided for Senate confirmation of postmasters and this is still the law (39 U.S.C. 3311). For the next 62 years postmasters served limited terms and left office when a new administration took charge of the executive branch. This was changed by the O'Mahoney-Ramspeck Act of 1938 (Public Law 89-554; 39 U.S.C. 3311), which subjects postmaster positions in post offices of the first three classes to the requirements of the Civil Service Act and the Hatch Act in an effort to remove postmasters from political activity (5 U.S.C. 33—5 U.S.C. 1001). That act has had a desired effect, in that postmasters no longer participate in political campaigns or are separated with the advent of a new administration. But appointments of postmasters are still subject to political considerations since the 1876 provision for Senate confirmation remains in effect. Criticism of postmaster examination procedures led to an administrative understanding in 1961 between then Postmaster General J. Edward Day and Chairman John W. Macy, Jr., of the U.S. Civil Service Commission. The agreement was to the effect that where a civil service register with three eligible persons for a postmaster position had been set up, based on an open competitive examination, the selection would be made from the register and the noncompetitive procedure for promotion from within postal service would not be used. SENATE CONFIRMATION The requirement of Senate confirmation of postmaster appointments at post offices of the first three classes, established in 1876, is a chief cause of the exercise of political influence on such appointments. Political recommendations by an applicant's majority party U.S. Senator or Representative are required before confirmation. If the applicant's congressional district and State are represented by minority party Members, recommendations by local political leaders of the majority party generally suffice for confirmation purposes. The requirement of Senate confirmation distinquishes congressional recommendations for postmasterships from such recommendations for other Federal positions. For other Federal positions the final determination as to the hiring of applicants rests with the agency head, and section 3303 of title 5, United States Code, permits congressional recommendations only as to character and residence of an applicant. The specific statutory requirement for Senate confirmation-and the political clearance system based on it-are exceptions to the general rule of such section 3303. Nor is the motive for making recommendations under this system relevant, according to a 1939 opinion of the Attorney General of the United States (39 Op. Atty. Gen. 378). Thus, the result of the requirement for Senate confirmation in effect is the power to delay any appointment until someone politically acceptable can be chosen. The exercise of this power to delay exposes the Congress to severe criticism and the Post Office Department to inefficiency. The damaging effects of such delay were stressed in testimony presented at the hearings on this legislation. |