NAPS President Louis Atkins has released a statement commending the efforts of the United States Senate in passing a bi-partisan Postal Reform bill.
We believe that there are important and valuable provisions contained in the postal reform legislation
approved by the Senate. The legislative process is never perfect, but a bill that largely sustains postal service for all Americans and still makes postal operations more efficient is a win-win for the American people and for the Postal Service.
The Senate-passed bill will save the Postal Service billions of dollars while still ensuring adequate funds for future postal retirees’ health benefits. Retirement funds overpaid by the Postal Service will satisfy the costs of retirement incentives to draw down the postal workforce. Overnight local delivery will be preserved and sensible downsizing of postal facilities will proceed. Many challenges remain yet before us, but the Senate’s
I want to thank the thousands of our members who have contacted their lawmakers to urge responsible
Senate action. I also salute the champions of S. 1789, Senators Joe Lieberman, Susan Collins, Tom Carper and Scott Brown, for their bipartisan leadership in working together to achieve a measure marked by consensus. For the past two weeks they exemplified what the Senate is capable of achieving in the nation’s best interests. I also want to extend our thanks to Senator Akaka for his amendment clarifying management consultation rights and and Senator Sanders for his leadership in awakening the Senate to the urgent need for the Postal Service to preserve service and embrace innovation.
We urge the House of Representatives to move swiftly to carefully consider the Senate-approved measure. We also urge the Postmaster General to take into account the Senate’s responsible actions and extend the moratorium on the closure of post offices and processing plants until the Congress has completed final action on a postal reform measure.
The Peoples must begin with early out, way past due, and then people will not go, bad economy , debts, jobs are part time , bad situation to wait on VERA.
The USPS has too much infrastructure, too many managers, too many craft employees, too much redundancy and waste, inferior technology that discourages customers from using postal services, too many brick and mortar structures and a business model conceived in the 1980’s for a pre-digital world. It all adds up to -$25M a day… bottom line.
S.1789 addresses some of these issues. It’s a start. It needs to become law and it’s mandates put into action. Then after 2 years, the workforce will have been downsized, the decisions on 5 or 6 day delivery can be made with more clarity, the issue of rural PO’s can be addressed with more evidence available. In short, the future of the USPS can be brought into greater focus and new actions by a future Congress can be made with greater certainty if we get moving on these present reforms.
IMO, the House will find a way to reconcile with the Senate on postal reform legislation sooner rather than later. This will happen because it’s an election year and doing nothing is bad politics for all those who must face the voters in less than 6 months. And make no mistake, the voters do care about their local post office.