WASHINGTON – The lead authors of bipartisan, comprehensive postal reform Tuesday released a letter they sent to the leadership of the House of Representatives urging prompt consideration of critical postal reform legislation on that side of the Capitol.
In a letter to Speaker of the House John Boehner and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, the Senators call on the House to act on legislation before May 15 so that the two chambers can reconcile their bills to turn around the Postal Service’s daily loss of $25 million, prevent the unnecessary wholesale closing of regional mail facilities and local post offices, and save this iconic institution that delivers over 500 million pieces of mail a day and sustains over 8 million jobs. Last week, the Senate overwhelmingly passed the 21st Century Postal Service Act (S. 1789), which was introduced by Sens. Joe Lieberman, ID-Conn., Susan Collins, R-Maine, Tom Carper, D-Del., and Scott Brown, R-Mass.
“The Postal Service’s financial crisis will likely come to a head in the next few months. Without legislation, the Postal Service will not be able to make payments that are due and will likely be forced to slash services,” wrote the Senators. “We fear that the resulting degradation of mail service will further drive away postal customers, only hastening the loss of postal revenue, the accelerating contraction of mail processing and mail-related industry, and further loss of associated jobs.”
The financial condition of the Postal Service has been deteriorating for years but the economic downturn and the near universal use of the internet for communications and commerce have hastened its downward spiral.
The text of the letter follows:
April 30, 2012
The Honorable John A. Boehner
Speaker
House of Representatives
H-232 US Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Democratic Leader
House of Representatives
H-204 US Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Speaker Boehner and Democratic Leader Pelosi:
The Senate last week passed a bipartisan postal reform bill designed to preserve the United States Postal Service and put it on a solid financial ground for the next generation of Americans. We are writing to urge that the House of Representatives act promptly, so that the two chambers can reconcile their bills to turn around the Postal Service’s daily loss of $25 million, prevent the unnecessary wholesale closing of regional mail facilities and local post offices, and save this iconic institution that delivers over 500 million pieces of mail a day and sustains over 8 million jobs.
The Postal Service’s financial crisis will likely come to a head in the next few months. Without legislation, the Postal Service will not be able to make payments that are due and will likely be forced to slash services. In addition, we face a looming deadline of May 15, when the Postal Service is scheduled to begin wholesale closures of potentially thousands of rural post offices and other retail sites and hundreds of processing centers. We fear that the resulting degradation of mail service will further drive away postal customers, only hastening the loss of postal revenue, the accelerating contraction of mail processing and mail-related industry, and further loss of associated jobs.
We believe the Senate bill, S.1789, takes a better approach. Under the Senate bill, the Postal Service would use the same kinds of retirement-incentives that private industry uses to restructure and voluntarily “right-size” its workforce, to reduce the postal workforce over a period of 3 years by 18 percent, or roughly 100,000 positions, eventually saving $8 billion per year. Analysis provided by the Postal Service shows this bill would save more than $19 billion per year by 2016. The bill also establishes an orderly and predictable process for achieving a more optimal network of post offices and mail processing plants, requiring involvement of local communities to ensure that essential postal services are preserved.
More specifically, the bill that passed the Senate last week would:
- Give the Postmaster General access to money that the Postal Service has overpaid into one of its retirement funds, so that he can use the money to provide incentives to encourage 100,000 eligible employees to retire. This would help voluntarily “right-size” the workforce to take into account the steep decline in first class mail volume;
- Reduce the amount of money that the Postal Service must contribute for future retiree health benefits, by replacing the current fixed annual payments and moving up to this year the 40-year amortization payments now scheduled to start in 2017;
- Retain some overnight delivery of first class mail, but limit it in some cases to shorter geographic distances;
- Prevent the Postal Service from going to five-day delivery for the next two years and require it to exhaust all other cost-saving measures first;
- Require the Postal Service to set standards for retail service across the country, consider several alternative options before closing post offices, and provide for increased opportunity for public input;
- Allow the Postal Service to sell non-postal products and services in appropriate cases;
- Allow the Postal Service to ship beer, wine, and distilled spirits;
- Create a Chief Innovation Officer to foster innovation at the Postal Service;
- Reform the Federal Employees Compensation Act, which is the workers’ compensation program for federal employees including postal workers; and
- Expand the alternatives that the Postal Service must consider before closing a post office, and establish a Strategic Advisory Commission, composed of prominent citizens and charged with developing a new strategic blueprint for the Postal Service.
We look forward to working with you and your colleagues in the House of Representatives very soon to reconcile S. 1789 with House legislation to save this vital American institution.
Sincerely,
Joseph I. Lieberman
Chairman
Susan M. Collins
Ranking Member
Thomas R. Carper
Chairman
Subcommittee on Federal Financial
Management, Government Information,
Federal Services and International Security
Scott P. Brown
Ranking Member
Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information,
Federal Services and International Security
Cc: The Honorable Eric Cantor
Majority Leader
House of Representatives
The Honorable Steny Hoyer
Democratic Whip
House of Representatives
The Honorable Darrell Issa
Chairman
Committee on Oversight and Government Management
House of Representatives
The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings
Ranking Member
Committee on Oversight and Government Management
House of Representatives
The Honorable Dennis Ross
Chairman
Committee on Oversight and Government Management
Subcommitee on Federal Workforce
House of Representatives
The Honorable Stephen Lynch
Ranking Member
Committee on Oversight and Government Management
Subcommitee on Federal Workforce
House of Representatives
2012 2:57 am
Its amazing to me that a Congressman Darrell Issa is more powerful than 62 senators…(1789) and 229 Congressman(Hr1351)…man that guy spits in their presence…he must be one bad dude the rest of congress must have NO BALLS
Oops! Lastbesthope I mean
Last great hope is an obvious racist
lastbesthope……… He is the President of the United States….Who the Hell are You?
lastbesthope (above): Good points, however, when every initiative to save the postal service is backed by Democrats and blocked by most Republicans, postal employees, especially in this election, will vote to keep their jobs. I’m more aggravated at all the “analysts” we have with laptops, or groups of 2 or 3 “specialists” who come around, coffee cups in hand, to see how they can save the Postal Service money. Meanwhile, we don’t have enough people to actually sort the mail.
Dear lastbesthope above ; u ARE, lets just say, less than brilliant to say the least. Every Presidental event costs much no matter who it is or where he goes. It is the nature of the job…much logistics involved. U are a small minded individual for sure and one that obscures the facts to fit your argument. The Republican machine is out to destroy your job, not to mention the middle class in general, and U are holding their banner. What an idiot !!!!
/m31433
Yeah…like Democrats care.
Dear American Taxpayer,
For only the second time in my adult life, I am not ashamed of my country. I want to thank the hard working American people for paying $242 thousand dollars for my vacation in Spain .My daughter Sasha, several long-time family friends, my personal staff and various guests had a wonderful time. Honestly, you just haven’t lived until you have stayed in a $2,500.00 per night private 3-story villa at a 5-Star luxury hotel.
Thank you also for the use of Air Force Two and the 70 Secret Service personnel who tagged along to be sure we were safe and cared for at all times.
By the way, if you happen to be visiting the Costa del Sol , I highly recommend the Buenaventura Plaza restaurant in Marbella ; great lobster with rice and oysters! I’m ashamed to admit the lobsters we ate in Martha’s Vineyard were not quite as tasty, but what can you do if you’re not in Europe , you have to just grin and bear it?
Air Force Two (which costs $11,351 per hour to operate according to Government Accounting Office reports) only used 47,500 gallons of jet fuel for this trip and carbon emissions were a mere 1,031 tons of CO2.These are only rough estimates, but they are close. That’s quite a carbon footprint as my good friend Al Gore would say, so we must ask the American citizens to drive smaller, more fuel efficient cars and drive less too, so we can lessen our combined carbon footprint.
I know times are hard and millions of you are struggling to put food on the table and trying to make ends meet. So I do appreciate your sacrifices and do hope you find work soon.
I was really exhausted after Barack took our family on a luxury vacation in Maine a few weeks ago. I just had to get away for a few days.
Cordially,
Michelle Obama
P.S. Thank you as well for the $2 BILLION dollar trip to India.
P.SS. Thank you, too, for that vacation trip to Martha’s Vineyard; it was fabulous. (And thanks for that second smaller jet that took our dog Bo to Martha’s Vineyard so we and the children could have him with us while we were away from the White House for eleven days. After all, we couldn’t take him on Air Force One because he might pee on some wires or something.)
P.SSS. Oh, I almost forgot to say thanks also for our two-week trip to Hawaii at Christmas. That 7,000 square foot house was great!
P.SSSs don’t forget my ski trip to Vail this winter and the girls and I loved being in Africa with my mom.
All this while Barack golf’s and campaigns to keep my trips coming for the next 4 years !
Love Ya!
Remember, we all have to share the pain of these economic times equally!
Words spoken wisely. Donahole is an ASSHOLE just like Issa who’s an even bigger asshole. They are in the same row boat and I hope they fall over the dam and go to hell!!!!!!
Nick is right!!!! Watch who votes the Tea Party bull, and doesn’t want to fix the problem! Vote them out if they cannot see the facts and fix the obvious problem in an honest and orderly way!
Well said Wingman!!!!
Management is responsible for 99% of the Service’s woes. Having been in the Service as a letter carrier for 27+ years, it’s always the same old story: the people who get into management and climb the ladder are related to somebody in the chain of command, ass kissers and snitches or maybe get in with “favors” and promises of sex or other goodies. It sounds sexist to say that, but it’s happened so many times it’s ridiculous. I know of several women who got where they are by playing “nice” if you get my drift. The men usually have familial connections or kiss ass unashamedly and rat out anybody to impress whichever manager can get them higher up the ladder.
These people were typically the worst craft employees, who had terrible attendance records, or were piss poor carriers and clerks. The good productive people are stuck where they are because management feeds off our backs like the leeches they are.
It’s this lack of real skills that cripples the Service. Too many in the higher levels simply have no fucking clue what’s going on and used the Postal Service for their personal plunder for decades.
I think Donohoe should have been fired immediately after endorsing such a suicidal program to supposedly “save’ us. Its structure shows that he couldn’t care less about the customer, has no real understanding of universal service, and hates the employees and unions he has to deal with. It’s not a private business and can’t be run like one. Managers should be shown the door at the highest levels, especially those contributing these suicidal proposals. The House needs to remember they can be voted out and go along with 1789. It isn’t perfect, but it’s a start. Issa can’t be allowed to have his way.
How’s that “watershed agreement” (aka National Contract) working out for ya! Union came thru for ya? Thumbs up APWU?
we made money in the 70s, 80s,and 90s, and then management with their excessive expansion took a toll on the po. too many personnel in management, large salarys,bonuses,muliple retirement plans, perks, etc., put the po in the red. this top heavy management past and present is killing the usps. thats a fact jack! ran a monopoly into the ground with excessive greed and blamed the internet and congress for its demise. slash management now.
vote them out of office…… remember who didn’t act… get those bastards out now…
The house republicans are nothing but obstructionist self serving pawns for the one percent. There has been a tax on postal users since 1976,which has been used to supplement military, CSRS,and FERS accounts . Consequently, reducing the true tax obligations of the richest americans. The entire fiscal crisis facing the USPS is the result of the cost mandated by congress to overfund healthcare and retirement funds. The public just notices the amount of supposed shortfall, not the root cause.
Postal workers ” UNITE”!
Remember its Election Year, and all those Republicans who do nothing will be up for election. So take Heed! If they won’t act we can, and
VOTE THEM OUT OF OFFICE!!!
management’s jobs are excessed and must be abolished to save money.
issa is in no rush, what’s losing 25 mil a day , chump change.