Lawmakers Push Reform Of Postal Service - Fox News

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Lawmakers push reform of debt-ridden Postal Service.

Postal Service bailout? USPS billions in the red as lawmakers push reform. The U.S. Postal Service is in need of a bailout.

Frank Todisco, chief actuary for the Government Accountability Office, told a House committee last week that the agency had $100 billion in debt and unfunded health benefit liabilities at the end of the last fiscal year.

At this stage, even the Postal Service admits it needs help.

"Despite our efforts and our hard work, we cannot return the organization to profitability or secure our long term financial outlook without the passage of comprehensive reform legislation," Jeffrey Williamson, United States Postal Service executive vice president, told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee recently.

Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., has ideas for how to fix it, and says part of that is convincing members of his own party that six-days-per-week mail delivery doesn't make sense.

"Much of what I have to do is to get my fellow Republicans to swallow the pills of five-day delivery -- going to the curb for delivery, right-sizing the size of the post office, quite candidly changing their medical retirement system to make it streamline with the rest of the workforce in America, by putting them on Medicare and out of a very expensive private program that you and I pay for," Issa told Fox News.

Delaware Democratic Sen. Tom Carper and Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn have a bill with bipartisan support in the Senate. The Senate proposal would move to five-day delivery after 2017, keep all processing facilities open for at least two more years, and allow the U.S. Postal Service to recover overpayments into the federal pension system.

"Not only does our bill modernize the Postal Service and give it the tools and resources it needs to make tough but necessary business decisions to cut costs and increase revenue, but it also directly addresses the source of the Postal Service's two biggest financial liabilities -- retiree pension costs and health care costs -- so taxpayers won't be left on the hook for these obligations in the future," Carper told Fox News.

As for the challenges of getting such an overhaul passed during an election year, Issa says the time is now.

"There is no better time than in an election year for people to call up and say I don't want to be paying out of my general tax revenue for somebody else's junk mail being delivered," Issa said. "That kind of message will cause people to make a reform this year."

Postal employees on Medicare? Is this another way of forcing national health care on this country?
Tom

Too many high salaries and too many people getting high pensions with benefits -------sorry the only way out of this mess is going to be rampid inflation which is coming .

Oh god, it can't be good if rep. Issa is proposing ideas. That guy is something else.

"Is this another way of forcing national health care on this country?"

Heavens, no one could possibly want that. It would lead to children and adults being healthier and more productive in schools and the workplace with a corresponding longterm increase in the economy and make the nation a better place for ALL it's citizens. I can't imagine that ANYONE could possibly want that.

Years down the road, can anyone see a "provider" sending you a monthly bill for your "mail service"?


-IBFS

They ought to just cut the USPS loose to set its own rates and services. The USPS should be required by law to deliver to any and every address in the US, but beyond that, they should be able to set rates and decide on which services to offer without congress's oversight.

"It would lead to children and adults being healthier and more productive in schools and the workplace"
There's no healthcare in the workplace? well that is true, after HMO's were thrusted upon us there is no longer PA's and Nurses in workplaces like there used to be, except for government offices. Unless you meant medicaid, where no one there is healthier magically for having it.

As far as the post office is concerned, the whole network is somewhat depressing. Old buildings, but not the nice old buildings, all of those were vacated for some dilapidated ones I continually notice. Even the ones they put in strip malls all look 40 years older and in worse repair than the whole malls and area themselves. There's something about the network that is as depressing as public school. I suppose I am alluding to image, which becomes marketability. As the post office isn't grand anymore, and isn't in grand buildings, and the delivery people are sloppy in appearance, the government march to paperless will continue to spread throughout society.

Maybe the usps needs to look at the european model in terms of diversification of services. Not sure how well they are doing but I remember in italy the pos were packed with people utilizing other services including banking.

If that were only true.

Tom