21st CENTURY POSTAL SERVICE ACT OF 2011
WASHINGTON – A bipartisan group of senators announced Wednesday they had reached agreement on a compromise proposal to save the United States Postal Service (USPS) from financial disaster and put it on the road toward financial stability.
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, ID-Conn, Ranking Member Susan Collins, R-Maine, Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management Chairman Tom Carper, D-Del, and Senator Scott Brown, R-Mass., unveiled the 21st Century Postal Service Act at a press conference. The bill was introduced later in the day and it will be marked up in the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee next week.
The rescue legislation provides the Postal Service with the flexibility and tools it needs to restructure the way it meets its obligations to its customers and employees.
Lieberman said: “The U.S. Postal Service is not an 18th Century relic. It is a 21st Century national asset. But times are changing rapidly and so too must the Postal Service, if it is to survive. The bottom line is we must act quickly to prevent a Postal Service collapse and we must act boldly to secure its future. The Postal Service needs long-term reform that includes a necessary restructuring of the way it meets its obligations to its customers and to its employees.”
Collins said: “The Postal Service literally won’t survive without legislative and administrative reforms. Absent action, it won’t be able to meet its payroll a year from now. The Postal Service is vital to our economy, yet is on the verge of collapse. It is in imminent financial danger. Jobs are at stake. The Postal Service is the linchpin of a $1.1 trillion mailing and mail-related industry that employs approximately 8.7 million Americans in fields as diverse as direct mail, printing, catalog companies, and paper manufacturing.
“We are asking the Postal Service to make painful choices about internal costs and not simply slash services and raise prices which would only add to its death spiral. This bipartisan legislation gives the Postal Service the authority it needs to restructure, modernize, survive, and thrive.”
Carper said: “Over the past several months, Americans have realized the hard truth that the Postal Service is on the verge of financial collapse. Our troubled economy – coupled with the continued migration to electronic forms of communication – is putting the future of the Postal Service in jeopardy, and it’s happening faster than anyone ever expected even just a few years ago. If we do nothing, we face a future without the valuable services the Postal Service provides. And if the Postal Service were to shut down, the impact on our economy would be dramatic.
“Although the situation is dire, it’s not hopeless. With the right tools and quick action from Congress and the Administration, the Postal Service can reform, right-size and modernize. The bill I introduced with Senators Lieberman, Collins and Brown presents a comprehensive and bipartisan solution to the Postal Services’ financial challenges that would keep it from collapse, protect the millions of jobs that rely on it, and enable this critical American institution to reform its business operations so it can continue to serve the American public for years to come. The time to act is now. It is my hope that Congress and the Administration can come together on this plan in order to save the Postal Service before it’s too late.”
Brown said: “Today a group of bipartisan Senators have presented a plan to preserve the solvency of the U.S. Postal Service and ensure the Postal Service’s long term survival. I’m proud of this bill and look forward to working with my colleagues on a bipartisan basis to get it enacted into law.”
The 21st Century Postal Service Act would:
- Authorize USPS to offer buyouts to employees to help reduce its workforce. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is directed to refund the Postal Service for what everyone agrees has been an overpayment to the Federal Employees Retirement System. Using this money to support buyouts, the Postmaster General estimates he can reduce the Postal Service workforce by as many as 100,000 employees over the next three years in order to reach savings of $8 billion a year.
- Allow the Postal Service to work with its employee unions and OPM to develop a new health plan to cover postal employees. The Postmaster General estimates that a new healthcare plan could cut costs roughly in half, while maintaining adequate benefits.
- Recalibrate the pre-funding requirements for its retiree health benefits by amortizing those payments over time.
Bar the USPS from five-day-a-week mail delivery for two years and until it develops remedies for customers who may be affected disproportionately by the change in service. USPS also must reduce costs and increase revenues by other means before five-day delivery takes effect.
The problem with the USPS proposals is that it comes from the same management teams, that caused the problem by, its mis managing. I t is like the blind leading the hearing impaired to safety, during a forrest fire.
Wasteful spendingusps had only 5 months left to pay on alease on a empty building then turned around an signed a 20 year lease that’s wasteful spending!
When have we ever seen the Postal Service do anything right? The only way that the USPS will cut it’s health care expenses in half is to strip the plans. That’s what they mean by using best business practices. They have been a major player in trashing the service Now they’re going to start and run their own health plan? Who’s kidding whom?
This plan by Homeland Security is not new. It’s more of the same. Why does homeland security have anything to say about this?
Everyday upper management adds more paperwork and redundant BS which hinders our ability to manage our employees. We spend 80% of our energy discussing and explaining what happened yesterday, last week, last pay period, and so there is little time for affecting productivity today and tomorrow. We need to spend 70% on today and 20% on the future. We can’t change what happened yesterday. While in my area I would say that 90% of our employees (management and craft) are fantastic, we need to find a way to remove or demote the 10% that have been promoted past their abilities (management) or should never have been hired in the first place (craft). The unions and management should work together on this.
Someone has been watching toooo much late night talk TV. Fiction without facts, not quotes, facts!!!
Well guys, what you and most Americans fail to recognize is that the USPS is OWNED outright by the Bank of England! I suggest you guys forget what you think you know about your own government and start doing the research for yourselves.
Florida Bob…I saw the hearing on this on cspan. They were specific when they stated it would be one or the other concerning buyouts.
Aren’t these the same ‘bad actors’ that caused the original problem, PAEA. Bad decisions = bad results. It did before and will again. Both for the public and the USPS. Public ‘input’ meetings being held at level levels are denouncing the current reaalignment and legislative plans as just plain bad public policy. Unfortunately, neither congress, the BOG, nor postal management are listening. All only hear their corporate lobbyists. Very sad state of affairs.
Recalibrate the prefunding requirements???!!?? How about just stopping them altogether. $42 billion is plenty for years to come, and I dont see any other federal agency having to prefund for a future retiree health fund. I am still not convinced that the post office could manage a healthcare plan. Returning the overpayment to FERS should be accompanied by the funds in the CSRS also. HR1351 would solve all this and then they could take a breath and take the time needed to make a plan that would keep the USPS running far into the future. Six day delivery is needed and should not be sacrificed in the name of “saving money”.
If we treated mail like money instead of paper the system would fix it self. Just use common sense and we all can win this battle, without throwing a punch.
did anyone see 60 minutes tonight??it was about lobbyists in d.c., and how corrupt they make our nation…… i hope that they aren’t affecting issa and ross, and their cronies…..
the post office needs to go to 5 day delivery soon,
and $25 k WITH 3 years added will do the trick for many…. a significant number of possible takers are csrs, with more than a few years till soc security kicks in…
ADD 3 years of time to retirement benefits….
THAT will achieve the desired results.
One of the many things needed to change for the postal service to survive is a change in the vehicles we use to deliver. I drive 55 to 60 miles a day and get about 11 miles to the gallon. That needs to change.Solar powered or electric powered vehicles are the way to go. The main item would be the ridiculous prefunding mandate. Why has no politician had to answer for this ridiculous political move?
The whole mess sounds like a Republican Conspiracy to me? Maybe so their Lobbiest friends can take over the money generating functions and throw away the rest, then finalize the closing of this Great Organization that has served the Public well since 1775. The Republicans want to rid the U.S. of Unions, the Middle Class and Collective Bargaining. Yet, they vote themselves raises and try to make us believe they are working for us?? They sold themselves out to the highest bidder…U.S.A., Inc.
if they truly want to get 100k + to retire asap, probably april 1st or so,
i believe that the $25 k AND 2 or 3 years added will be the way to go….
without it, $18k + clear is not going to do the deal.
also, i believe that we need to go to 5 day delivery… sooner, rather than later.
To generate additional revenue, the USPS must stop (again, stop) subsidizing and making it free for religious groups and politicians to use the USPS mailing system. Imagine the added revenue from all these groups in this vast USA, only if they pay postage to their mailings. Most political mailing is for self-interest/political agenda by politicians anyway. Also, it is unconscienable, irrational, and very unfair that religious groups boast of towering, ornate churches, convents, cathedrals, et al while the US Postal Service, which supports itself (without tax money) is suffering financially and close to being bankrupt.
the lettercarriers are the ones that deal with the public everyday and we see what they want we do our jobs thru whatever and fulfill our obligations to the public but the ones that are in control dont seem to listen you post VOE but do are they really reading them. The US Postal Service can survive if you do the right thing and listen to what your employees are saying and work hand in hand and stop wasteful spending . We are your backbone. We are for one cause to deliver!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I totally object to FERS money being used to pay for buyouts to CSRS employees. If the FERS overpayment is to be refunded to the USPS, then the USPS, in all fairness, should refund that money to those whose pockets it came out of: FERS employees, past and present!
This plan certainly sounds better to me than Issa’s plan. There are a lot of senior craft people eligible for Social Security who have been waiting for a buyout offer. This would be better than just forcing them to retire like Issa’s plan would. I agree that it sounds like there’s some common sense.j
9 more Years. That’s all I need. Now we have postal mngt running our health plan. They can’t figure or understand how mail is delivered! Cors does that! Good luck is right!
Will the last one out please turn off the light?
It does sound more promising than H.R. 2309 which would have been the Wisconsin of the Postal Service.
Downsizing rather than closing hopefully will have less of an impact on service and employees than just closing a plant or station down.
Mail should be kept 6 days a week so service is not reduced and at least hopefully it will be thought out carefully if it goes to 5 days by keeping Saturday delivery for 2 years.
Hopefully it keeps the Postal Service strong without slashing service, jobs and benefits and like the following doesn’t become a service of the past.
Wreck Of The U.S. Postal Service October 4, 2011
Our Postal Service was founded in 1775 with Benjamin Franklin being our first Post Master.
The Postal Service is in trouble because of a Bush- era law that requires the Postal Service to pre-fund the cost of retiree’s benefits for the next 75 years in 10 years time.
No other company or agency in America is required to do this.
In June 2011 Hangman Darrell Issa and Hangman Dennis Ross introduced H.R. 2309 which will be the Wisconsin of the Postal Service if it becomes law. It will dismantle collective bargaining and forbid payment of severance pay to retirement-eligible employees. And reduce delivery services and close plants and post offices.
Rep Steve Lynch introduced H.R. 1351 which would prevent the financial collapse of the USPS – without closing thousands of post offices, eliminating hundreds of mail processing facilities, delaying mail delivery, laying off 120,000 workers, cutting postal workers’ pay, or ending collective bargaining rights.
We are in the fight of our lives but people have voted wrong for too long and done nothing to help preserve their jobs over the years. People tell me it doesn’t matter what we do as we are doomed anyway.
The Postal Service has its mind made up even before the Area Mail Processing studies are done.
All we can do is say we went down trying to keep our Eagle from drowning to keep service for the American people and jobs and benefits for the workers.
Hangman Issa and his cronies will never give up until all services that help us including the Postal Service, bled and dead. Common sense is not in the makeup to improve the economy, only the rich get richer and the poor poorer.
Private companies will not deliver to the rural areas or inner cities and the elderly will not get their medications.
We will have a museum of our defunct Postal Service.
BandAid. We are too top heavy and have been since EDS was supposed to do a survey and was canceled. So while we still staff the top, we are severely understaffed at the bottom where the service is severely affected. We are replacing career employees, with PT, casual, flexible, PSE, type employees, who have no assurance of a future with the PO, while making lower pay, will only increase the money spent with HR from having a bigger turn over amongst these non-career employees.
I don’t want the PO running my health care. My option will be to seek out a personal health insurance, and turn it in on my flex spending account. Look at how long it takes to pay OWCP claims. What makes you think that it will be any better. Not me.
Finally — Some common sense.