WH to float Postal Service rescue plan
Customers wait in line at the U.S. Post Office Bernal Heights Station August 6, 2009 in San Francisco, California. / Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
The White House will include a financial rescue plan for the U.S. Postal Service as part of a broader $1.5 trillion deficit reduction package due to Congress in the coming weeks, it said Tuesday.
In advance of those recommendations, the Obama administration is asking lawmakers to give the Postal Service a 90-day extension to pay billons of dollars in mandatory annual retirement payments that are due at the end of its fiscal year Sept. 30.
If approved, a delay would buy time for Congress, the White House and postal officials to draft a package of reforms for the cash-strapped delivery service, whose leader warned again Tuesday that it is teetering on the brink of financial collapse and likely to go broke by fall 2012.
"I'm operating right now with a week's worth of cash," Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe warned senators Tuesday. The Postal Service's weekly costs total about $1 billion, he said.
USPS could post a $10 billion loss for its fiscal year, Donahoe said, as mail volume continues to drop.
The White House declined to detail what a postal rescue package might include, but one senior administration official said the plan would be "consistent with the Postal Service's mission and its obligations to all of its stakeholders, including its workers." The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly.
The Postal Service's pleas for reform have become an annual occurrence on Capitol Hill and usually result in no changes. But lawmakers said Tuesday that they are willing to address the issue in a meaningful, bipartisan fashion.
Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), who chaired Tuesday's Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on the issue, said his panel would draft legislation to address the concerns.
Two of the panel's members, Sens. Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), are pushing competing proposals, but both signaled Tuesday that they are willing to collaborate on a plan. Carper's bill would give the Postal Service the flexibility to cut Saturday mail deliveries, close thousands of post offices and give USPS access to money it has overpaid for decades to federal retirement funds. Collins, who opposes curtailing mail deliveries because of potentially adverse effects on rural and far-flung areas, wants to overhaul the Postal Service's payments to pre-fund future retiree benefits, which cost USPS about $5.5 billion annually.
In the House, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is pushing for stronger reforms that would end Saturday mail and allow post offices to close, but that would also establish a financial control board to overhaul postal finances if USPS defaults on its payments.
The Postal Service is a self-funding entity drawing revenue from the sale of stamps and shipments, but its workers draw benefits from the federal government's health-care, retirement and workers' compensation funds.
Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry, who oversees the health-care and retirement funds, said Congress should carefully study a Postal Service proposal to withdraw from the federal health-care and retirement funds to save money.
Postal "employees and retirees are well served by the existing health benefits program and retirement system," he said.
In addition to structural reforms, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) suggested that USPS should mount a national advertising campaign promoting the value of printed mail.
"You cannot get money by text message," McCaskill said. "I really think that there is a longing out there right now, especially in these uncertain times, for some of the things that have provided stability over the years."
Donahoe said such a campaign is in the works. Aides said it will debut for the holiday shopping season.
Lieberman voiced his support, suggesting, "We should be writing more passionate letters to those we love."
McCaskill agreed. "I'm going to go back to my office and write one to [John A.] Boehner," she quipped, in reference to the Republican House speaker.
Popular in Politics
- Obama forgets to salute while boarding Marine One Play Video
- The Ted Cruz conundrum
- Senators lack votes on immigration despite progress
- Petraeus biographer regrets affair
- Senator: Oklahoma "hit hard, but we're not knocked out"
- IRS' Lerner was asked to resign, refused: GOP Sen. 205 Comments
- GOP Rep.: Obama elected because of Reagan's immigration reforms
- As summer approaches, sequestration threatens holiday fun
2. Start a public campaign to adopt a nursing home. Many old people, my grandma included, look forward to getting mail. They don't have a lot else to look forward to. Start a campaign to either adopt an elderly resident in a nursing home, or to e-mail your own elderly relatives at least once a month.
3. Military people overseas also appreciate hearing from their loved ones. Start a campaign where, if you have a family member in the military serving overseas, to mail them a letter or at least a greeting card once a month.
4. Whatever happened to pen pals? Schools could greatly benefit from pen pal programs. I had a few pen pals growing up. It could be a great learning experience for kids.
Name one industry in the last 40 years that has benefited from having a union?
People blame CEOs & corporations for sending jobs overseas but the major culprit is unionized labor.
Office have been missing in nearly every article I have
seen on the subject, including this one. The sad fact is
that the Congress has been purloining the over-payments to the pension system by the USPS for many years, and they fiercely resist calculating the true amount of their theft. Estimates
vary, though they usually fall into a range of 50 to 75 BILLION
DOLLARS. That is a lot of money, enough to fix the problems
of the problems of the USPS, if they could gain access to it, for a good long time without endangering the underlying pension
funds, reducing service or closing small post offices.
Though facts on the reasons for the conspiracy of silence on
the subject are hard to come by, the most likely explanation
is that the over-payments have been absorbed by the US budget,
and so technically giving the money back to USPS would increase
the deficit. Congress had a stealth vote on the subject and
so they feel that they STOLE THE MONEY FAIR AND SQUARE and
they have not intention of giving it back, and they have the
clout to stone-wall any investigation.
The first theft worked out so well, that Congress decided to ROB
THE POST OFFICE AGAIN to the tune of 5.5 BILLION a year for
frankly unjustifiable pre-paid health benefits,a requirement that would no doubt be excused if some private robber barons were to seize control of operations.
Part of the dynamic of the situation is I think a built-in
class bias of upper class members of Congress towards mere
workers. They are offended that the USPS is not structured
like most businesses - a few fat cats running around a lot
of low-paid laborers.
.