House panel displays bipartisan unity over bill to save Postal Service from financial ruin

[former9thward]

Source: Washington Post

Members on each side of the dais went out of their way to praise representatives from both parties for work on legislation designed to save the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) from financial ruin.

For more years than can be easily remembered, the Postal Service has pleaded with Congress for help with its financial situation. Members of Congress, along with postal unions and other interested folks, agreed that the financial picture was bleak, but consensus on getting out of the hole seemed beyond reach.

Now, with bipartisan legislation being considered in the infamously partisan House, hopeless no longer describes the USPS’s future. It’s not fixed yet, but the Postal Service Reform Act of 2017 provides a degree of optimism that for many years was absent.

“We’re actually going to get to the finish line and get a bill on the president’s desk,” Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) told the hearing. “I’d like to see that as a bipartisan reform proposal that we can all get behind and champion. I didn’t get everything I wanted, Congressman (Elijah E.) Cummings didn’t get everything he wanted, but that’s the nature of coming up with a compromise without compromising your principles.” He and Cummings (Md.), the top Democrat on the committee, made a point of thanking Reps. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.), Stephen F. Lynch (D-Mass.), Dennis A. Ross (R-Fla.) and Brenda Lawrence (D-Mich.), who was a longtime postal employee.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/02/07/house-panel-displays-bipartisan-unity-over-bill-to-save-postal-service-from-financial-ruin/?utm_term=.e8397d91f2f4&wpisrc=nl_fed&wpmm=1

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This is good news. The union opposes it but if Rep. Cummings is backing it the bill should be supported. This bill will get rid of the unfunded liability for retiree health benefits provision which has caused so many problems in recent years.

[Wounded Bear]

1. Not sure I have a lot of hope here...

after all, they wrote a bill a few years ago to destroy it.

I hope this works. Not so much for me personally, but there are many folks in Trump country where the USPS is their only contact with the outside world, and especially in the delivery of mail and packages.

[mpcamb]

19. Anybody else tired of fear-mongering headlines? 'Financial Ruin' my derriere.

[Hortensis]

28. Oh, the right's been trying to ruin it for decades.

There are vast piles of gold in those deliveries. Notably, without inexorable competition from the huge and ultra-capable NONPROFIT USPS driving down delivery costs, charges can go up, up, up.

Congress has been turning the financial screws hard and has never succeeded in breaking it. They once made it illegal for the USPS to deliver some types of packages, just to give the business to private industry, and those carriers ended up subcontracting much of the deliveries to the USPS anyway.

[The Sand Reckoner]

2. Save it from "financial ruin"

that the fucking Republicans in Congress IMPOSED on it! They FORCED the Postal Service to advance fund pensions to a ridiculous extent, for no other reason than to make its day-to-day operations look financially shaky, which they ARE NOT.

They hate the idea that anything run by the government can work so well, so they decided to screw them.

[Hayabusa]

9. Somehow, I don't think ridiculous is strong enough.

That said, I don't what word really fits having to fund the pensions of employees not yet born. It is THAT insane.

[angrychair]

3. Fuck praising republicans for this horse shit

Sorry, you should get to break something than get a pat on the back for fixing it.

It's republicans fault the USPS is in this mess. Minus the ridiculous obligation put on it the USPS is completely self sufficient and operates at a profit. The unfunded pension liabilities was forced on them with express purpose of bankrupting it and therefore republicans getting to outsource the former USPS previous work to whatever organization is being run by the donor with the deepest pockets for the Republican Party.

Benjamin Franklin would be disgusted by what they are doing to his organization.

[former9thward]

5. No, look at their financial reports.

It does not operate at a profit and forget about the pension stuff. The post office has received a waiver to NOT pay the pension payment for five years now. That is not the cause of their problems. Their problems, as they admit, come from the fact that first class mailings have dropped like a rock year after year. You know that little thing called emails? A lot of that -- especially anything involving documents -- used to be delivered by the P.O. Not anymore.

[Norbert9]

10. I have to agree

Small world, former9thward. I grew up in Arabi.

[Talk Is Cheap]

11. Can you prove your statement that...

... the Post Office got a 'waiver' to not pay the $5 Billion a year?

[former9thward]

22. Sure, but not to your satisfaction.

It started in 2010. So it has been six years not five as I stated.

2011:

The Postal Service is supposed to make a $5.5 billion payment to its retiree health care fund by November 18th... but doesn't have the money.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/45018432

2012:

Yesterday, the United States Postal Service admitted that it will miss a legally required $5.5 billion payment toward pre-funding its promised health-care benefits for retirees.

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2012-08-02/understanding-the-post-office-s-benefits-mess

2016:

In that adverse business environment, the Service has experienced enormous difficulty meeting its RHBF requirements. The challenge has been especially great because Congress specified a front-loaded RHBF contribution schedule: yearly payments averaging roughly $5.6 billion during the 10 years 2007-2016, with any remaining unfunded liability to be paid over 40 years starting in 2017. When the depth and persistence of the mail decline became apparent, Congress should have replaced the front-loaded schedule with a gradual one, but it did not.

The Postal Service has defaulted on every RHBF payment since 2010, although it had enough cash to make modest partial payments in the last couple of years. The defaults have not affected the benefits of current retirees. While defaults normally have severe repercussions, the Service has incurred no penalties.

https://taxfoundation.org/primer-postal-service-retiree-health-benefits-fund/

[mr_lebowski]

24. I don't see how one can legitimately claim it's been in the Red without being able to stipulate ...

Exactly HOW MUCH 'should' the future pension obligation realistically be, esp. given the drop in the rate of need for their services due to emails (which will continue)?

And how much did the years they DID pay the 5.5B unfairly set them back? If the original amount had been $1B a year from the start of it, do you know that this would NOT have 'been enough' to properly fund the pension program for a reasonable amount of years? Do you KNOW their finances would've still 'fallen behind', driving these yearly defaults, had they not been overcharged so drastically for 2007-2010?

No offense, but I think you're looking at the situation is a bit of shallow manner, honestly. Esp. given they've made smaller payments (how much, exactly?) the last few years.

[cstanleytech]

16. So is the deal to help UPS deliver its packages causing them any problems or

is that helping to keep them afloat?

[former9thward]

21. I have no idea.

But I assume they made a business decision that they would make a profit on it. Whether that is working I don't know.

[lastlib]

23. "We had to save the Postal Service in order to destroy it."

I have no doubt that this has been the GOPee strategy from the beginning--to fuck up the USPS so badly that it has to be sold for scrap to the lowest bidders and privatized. The bastards are dirty and despicable enough to do it, and I couldn't put it past them.

[CousinIT]

4. FINANCIAL RUIN THE GOP CAUSED in 2006 w/ their "postal reform act"

that mandated they had to have 75 YEARS of retiree healthcare funds put aside. Before that, USPS was in the black. After CONgress signed this poison pill bill they were broke.

https://www.21cpw.com/paea-the-most-insane-law-by-congress-ever/

"It requires the self-supporting U.S. Postal Service, which receives not one dime in taxpayer subsidies, to fully fund its retirees’ health benefits for 75 years into the future. It also requires that money be set aside over a 10-year period, at a rate of more than $5 billion per year."

[groundloop]

6. BINGO!! NOBODY else has anywhere near that severe of a requirement

It was clearly designed to damage the postal service and union.

[jpak]

13. Susan Collins was he chief architect of that monstrosity

yup

[Bernardo de La Paz]

20. The GOP tried to destroy it by imposing requirements no govt or private agency had to bear:

[Historic NY]

7. I can't see how having Medicare in place of a Federal health plan...

is anything different than what most Americans have.....perhaps its is time to standardize

[MontanaMama]

8. I'm all for saving the USPS and it burns my britches

that we even have to talk about saving it! The rethugs have done everything they could to diminish and dissolve the USPS. Although I HATE seeing that little puke Jason Chaffetz name on anything that is seen as bipartisan.

All this said...I have a small business that is dependent on parcel shipping. I spent $40,000+ on parcel shipping last year. I would LOVE to use USPS a lot more than I do, however, I have never seen folks that don't seem to give a shit about anything they do than at my local post offices. SO frustrating. They make everything I do more difficult. I pay a little more for better service elsewhere - I don't want to but it is all about the level of service - or lack of it at the USPS. Maybe the rethugs have killed the spirit of their organization.

Okay, done with rant. Save the USPS! But, don't give one rethug any credit for it. Bastards.

[xxqqqzme]

15. I am sorry your experience

is so negative. The post offices in our SoCal beach town are very friendly and helpful. The postal employees are great about showing new stamps and helping figure the lowest postal rate for whatever I'm sending. I just wish the lines weren't so long.

[Talk Is Cheap]

12. This is actually troubling...

The republicans want to privatize the USPS (as they do with everything). That
$5 billion a year payments for retirement - they did that to sweeten their take.

And here is the even more troubling point: what was it, 5 years ago, the bill that
required the $5B/year - well, the original bill did not have the 5 year retirement
expense in it. And republicans passed it in the middle of the night. No Dems were
present (according to the Congressional Record). Why were they not there? Why
did they not ensure the bill was not changed.

My worry is the the reps and the Dems will both destroy what we call the USPS. The Dems
certainly did not cause an uproar when it was found out. And, look what happened - beautiful
landmark Post Offices were sold. This was one obvious reason for the bill.

Notice when the 5-year payment ended - 4th Q 2016 - and election year. And, who magically
are in control of our government now - yes republicans.

Its all a setup with willing partners (Dems and Reps).

I hope I am wrong.

[appalachiablue]

14. Our heritage US Postal Service must be preserved...stop the slaughter.

[msongs]

17. shipping to hawaii USPS vs UPS -

package weight 3 pounds

UPS NINE days and $47.00

USPS 3 days and $18.00

unfortunately businesses using UPS care more about making profits for UPS than they do their customers

[DeminPennswoods]

18. UPS and FedEx love USPS

They love getting the package business, then sub-contracting door-to-door delivery to USPS. It saves them the time and fuel of a lot of little stops. I don't honestly know why businesses even use UPS and/or FedEx for small packages because those companies actually will hold a package at a facility to meet the "3 business day" deadline even if they could move the package and get it to you sooner. USPS never does that. Mail it and it's gone, no delays or "holds" somewhere. Almost everything gets to where it's supposed to go in 2-3 days.

Also, USPS is, by far, the most trusted federal gov't agency according to the reported polling I've seen.

[Cosmocat]

25. THIS. THIS. THIS. THIS.

USPS subsidizes the nonprofitable postage needs, putting ads, coupons, bills, etc into the mailboxes of every household.

The for profit entities vulture off the business related postage, which actually makes money.

[shockey80]

26. I worked at the post office

They gutted the workforce. So many carriers left or were driven out. There were not enough carriers to cover routes. We had to deliver are own routes and then deliver pieces of other routes. We were forced in on are days off. While this was happening they extended everybody routes by eliminating routes.

They constantly harassed and threatened us to go faster. They would write you up for the smallest offense. They would not let the carriers do there job the right way. When you got back to the office after forced overtime they would tell you to drop your mail and leave. They would not let you forward your mail, do your change of address cards for people that moved. I saw mail sit there for months. This why i left and thousands more carriers left. They drove the best carriers out. It was a madhouse.

[DeminPennswoods]

27. Too many ex-military

When I worked for DoD, I always heard that the Post Office was run too much like the military in the way it exercized command and control over its employees.