NALC: Bipartisan postal reform bills reintroduced
On Jan. 31, House Oversight and Government Reform (OGR) Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) reintroduced the Postal Service Reform Act of 2017 (H.R. 756), and Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA), a member of the OGR Committee, reintroduced the Postal Service Financial Improvement Act (H.R. 760). The OGR Committee has jurisdiction over the U.S. Postal Service.
NALC President Fredric Rolando has been invited to testify during a Feb. 7 OGR Committee hearing on both bills. Last May, Rolando testified before the committee about the need for comprehensive postal reform legislation.
The two new bills are similar to postal measures that were introduced in the House of Representatives in the 114th Congress. Following a mark-up session shortly after last May’s hearing, both of those bills were overwhelmingly approved by the committee.
OGR Committee Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-MD) and committee members Mark Meadows (R-NC), Dennis Ross (R-FL), Gerry Connolly (D-VA) and Lynch have signed on as original co-sponsors of Chaffetz’ H.R. 756.
NALC is reviewing these new bills and any amendments that may have been made since last year.
PEN Editor: Rolando will again testify before the OGR committee and as he did last time he will recommend that postal employees and retirees be forced into Medicare coverage at age 65. Our thoughts? JUST REPEAL THE P.A.E.A….problem solved.
APWU: Postal Reform Legislation Introduced
02/01/2017 – On January 31, 2017, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee leaders introduced The Postal Service Reform Act of 2017, H.R. 756. Currently, the APWU Legislative & Political Department is reviewing the legislation with APWU leadership.
“We are encouraged by the bipartisan nature of the bill,” said President Dimondstein. “Comprehensive postal legislation is critically important to our members.
“We are in the process of carefully analyzing the bill,” he continued. “Once our review is complete, we will post more information about the details of the legislation.”
APWU will update information about the legislation in the “Featured News” section of the website as well as on the “Legislative and Political” Department page.
APWU’s previous statement regarding this type legislation
Would love to know how much money the unions stand to make by throwing retiree under the bus with this forced Medicare deal. What does all this have to do with the prefunding joke that we ALL have been fighting to change. The Union’s just made enemies of many past postal members.
Answer to Scott is correct, thst was my situation. Howver most NALC members currently enroll on Medicare and keep FEHBP as their secondary coverage, particularly when they have younger spouses who need coverage. Those affected by this legislstion would be minority of postal retirees who elect not to do so.
To answer to attacks on Rolando above, the NALC has been fighting the prefunding requirement for years and continues to do so–thus far to no avail. The longer the issue goes unresolved, the more precarious the USPS financial situation and the more its enemies will seize on the situstion to justify privatization. Union support for mandatory Medicare enrollment is a fallback position, one which assumed attempts by right wingers in Congress to turn Medicare into a voucher system would fail. With Trump on the White House and Paul Ryan leading Congress, it may be necessary to rethink that approach.
Disclosure: as an NALC retiree who has fought for years for Medicare for all, I’ve been frustrated by the opposition of unions who think they can get a better deal at the bargaining table and throw other working people under the bus. Of course we should defend what we have, but doing so by attacking Medicare leaves me very uncomfortable. Incidentally, in the current political climate not even FEHBP is safe from Congressional attack or another Trump “executive order,” and divisive rhetoric is not helpful.
The insurance companies should be required to offer Medicare Supplement plans for all of the retirees. Since we will be forced into Medicare Part A & B we don’t need our current health insurance just a Medicare Supplement plan.
Scott – there are many retirees that maintain their FEHB coverage to cover their spouses that do not have health insurance and are not Medicare age eligible. A Medicare supplement would not help under these circumstances. PEN
Of course NALC President Rolando is invited!!! The House Oversight committee will try to get all the support they can and Rolando will once again stab us in the back (I’m sure) instead of doing ” the right thing” for his members. “THE RIGHT THING” being to fight to do away with the prefunding!!!This guy is something else, he must have some kind of agenda that we don’t know about…clearly he is NOT fighting for the members!! Rolando doesn’t care about the extra expense to himself , this guy makes about $225,000 a year so he can afford the extra expense!!! The congressional budget office or CBO has given the mandate to medicare for postal retirees a “revenue neutral” score meaning it saves the USPS money, but costs Medicare the same amount! So basically it’s a shell game of shifting the expense away from the USPS to medicare!! The bill states that this mandate will save $2.2 B for the USPS and will improve employee health care which we know is bogus!! Just last week, Chairman Jason Chaffetz made the comment that he would not go after existing federal employees benefits as long as one had 7 years in service while talking about reducing benefits for the Federal workforce! SO, I GUESS HE KEPT HIS WORD FOR A WEEK ANYWAY!! All Federal workers and Federal Retirees should take notice…because they are coming after you next!!!
Rolando is a bough abd paid for special interest spokesman (lobbyist) for the elite (rich and political) class of this country.You can be sure that he will again testify to screw the
postal retiree and force them into medicare and pay the extra whatever current cost of coverage is for themselves/and if spouse for them also to maintain FEHBP (or whatever they will call it ) coverage.
He is no friend to NALC rank and file members and certainly does not look out for their well being.