NAPUS Disappointed The President Failed To Acknowledge The Billions In USPS Overpayments To The US Treasury

eNAPUS Legislative & Political Bulletin

President Obama Weighs In on Postal Legislation

On Monday morning, President Obama finally put his postal cards on the counter, as part of a broad proposal to the Special Select Congressional Committee on Deficit Reduction. The committee is tasked with presenting both Houses of Congress a bill, by mid-November to reduce the federal deficit by $1.5 trillion over the next decade. The committee’s efforts dovetail with a proposed extension of the date on which the Postal Service is required to make a $5.5 billion payment to prefund retiree health benefits. The payment delay is included in House Joint Resolution 79, a Continuing Resolution, which keeps the government running through Nov. 18.

The President’s postal plan provides about $20 billion in relief to the USPS over the next 10 years; it contains five major elements:

  • Permits the USPS to reduce delivery frequency from six days to five days a week,
  • Allows the USPS to adjust rates to better reflect the cost of delivery within its price cap, and permits the USPS to seek an exigent rate increase,
  • Authorizes partnerships with state and local governments to offer non-postal products,
  • Restructures the Postal Service’s obligation to prefund retiree health costs, and
  • Refunds the USPS’ $6.9 billion in overpayments to the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) over two years.

The Presidential Deficit Reduction document acknowledges that by the end of the month without legislative relief, the USPS would be insolvent by because it will be unable to make the mandated $5.5 billion Retiree Health Benefit prefunding payment, will have exhausted its cash reserves, and will have reached its statutory borrowing authority of $15 billion.

While NAPUS is relieved the President did not endorse the USPS proposal to withdraw from the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program and FERS, we are disappointed the Administration failed to acknowledge the $55-$75 billion in USPS pension overpayments to the U.S. Treasury – overpayments that are well-documented by two independent actuarial firms. Providing the Postal Service access to these surplus contributions is fair and equitable, and would help the Postal Service escape the ravages of the recession, and provide the agency with a means to meet its retiree prefunding obligation. Such a fix does not involve tax-payer money and the legislation (HR 1351) is pending before Congress. HR 1351 commands 206 bipartisan sponsors.

President’s Deficit Plan Impacts FERS and FEHBP

President Obama’s proposal to the Deficit Reduction Committee would impact active and retired federal and postal employees. The White House proposes that FERS employees increase their pension contributions by 1.2% over the next three years. It is presently 0.8% of salary. Under the plan, contributions would increase by 0.4% per year. In 2011, the FERS contribution would be 1.2%; in 2012, the contribution would be 1.6%; and, in 2013, it would be 2.0%. (The proposal by last year’s Budget Commission chairmen, Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles recommended a 6.0% employee contribution to FERS.) In addition, Obama proposes to eliminate the FERS Annuity Supplement for new employees. According to the Administration, these two proposals would save an estimated $21 billion over the next decade.

Another presidential proposal relates to Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) drug benefits. It would streamline the FEHBP pharmacy benefit, enabling the Office of Personnel Management to contract directly for drug benefits, rather than for each FEHBP plan to negotiate its own drug benefit package. The White House believes that such a plan would permit the FEHBP to leverage its purchasing power of 9 million beneficiaries to lower prescription drug costs for the government and plan participants. This proposal is projected to save $1.6 billion over the next 10 years.

Postal Subcommittee to Vote on HR 2309

On Wednesday, the House Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, the Postal Service and Labor Policy will take up Rep. Darrell Issa’s (R-CA) postal legislation, HR 2309. NAPUS opposes the legislation for a number of reasons, including our strong belief that the bill would have a devastating effect on postal services to rural America. The bill seeks $1 billion in savings through closing post offices. The measure undermines a community’s lawful right to appeal an arbitrary or unsupported post office closure, eliminates the requirement that the Postal Service provide “a maximum degree of service” to rural areas, abolishes the prohibition against closing a post office solely for running a deficit, and creates a commission to close post offices.

Moreover, HR 2309 fails to address the core cause of the Postal Service’s immediate financial challenge by not requiring an accurate calculation of its retirement liability, a computation that two independent actuaries found to be arcane and inequitable, and resulted in $55-$75 billion in USPS overpayments.

Subcommittee Chairman Dennis Ross (R-FL) has circulated an amendment to the legislation that would double the amount that the USPS must save through closing mail processing plants, phases out front-door mail delivery, and reduces the postal workforce starting with retirement-eligible workers. In addition, the Ross amendment would require Alaska to pay the cost of “bypass mail”.

NAPUS anticipated consideration of HR 2309 at its recent National Convention and, last week, urged Postmasters to contact their representatives to oppose HR 2309. Should the subcommittee favorably report the legislation to the full Committee, it is expected the House Oversight and Government Reform committee will consider the measure in early October. It is believed the committee activity, in part, is due to Chairman Issa’s desire to submit HR 2309 to the Deficit Reduction Committee, alongside the President’s postal plan. It is unclear if the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will move a bill to present something to the Deficit Committee.

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