As chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) has dogged the Obama administration since 2011.
Issa has tried to tied Obama on reports of IRS bias in tax exemption forms, at the Benghazi attacks of 9/11/12, Healthcare.gov website fiasco, bring down the U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and anything else that looked promising .
So in light of Issa’s past actions over the last few years it is very suspect to read about his support of President Obama’s proposals on reforming the USPS. Is Obama now Issa’s (Best Friend Forever (BFF) ??? On Friday, May 9, 2014 Issa issued the following statement on USPS’s announcement of second quarter financial results:
Today, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., issued the following statement on the U.S. Postal Service’s announcement that they posted a net-loss of $1.9 billion this quarter:
“The latest quarter of staggering losses for the U.S. Postal Service drives home the agency’s dire financial situation. Both President Obama and myself support a series of cost-cutting reforms, but House Democrats continue to oppose all real reform efforts, including those supported by the President. I urge my Democratic colleagues to join President Obama and myself in supporting cost-cutting reforms that will finally restore the Postal Service to solvency.”
On Wednesday, May 7th, Issa sent a letter to Committee Democrats urging them to support the postal reform provisions laid out in President Obama’s budget for FY2015. In a letter dated April 28th, the Postal Service made clear that they support reforms proposed in the President’s budget. Issa postponed a scheduled Committee markup on Wednesday due to a lack of Democratic support.
Issa Statement on USPS $1.9 Billion Second Quarter Loss | Committee on Oversight & Government Reform.
The Postmaster General’s April 28th letter to the House committee weighs in on USPS problems
As mentioned previously, one of the central problems facing the Postal Service is the combination of declining First-Class letter mail volumes and increasing delivery points. There is simply not sufficient revenue from mail per delivery point to sustain six-day mail delivery. Eliminating Saturday delivery of letters, flats, and other non-package items addresses this problem and will enable the Postal Service to better cover the cost of its ever-expanding delivery network. At the same time, the Postal Service will continue to deliver shipping services and packages on Saturday, (and in some cases Sunday), consistent with the growth in the volume of those products. This will enable us to continue to leverage our strengths in the package delivery market, and to continue positioning ourselves as a strong partner for e-retailers.
The unions’ criticism of five-day mail delivery does not take into account the fact that package delivery would continue six (and sometimes seven) days per week. It is also simply inaccurate to claim, as the unions do, that affordable package delivery on Saturday is dependent in any way on the delivery of other mail. Delivering only packages on Saturday and/or Sunday, allows the Postal Service to take advantage of dynamic routing in the same way as our private sector competitors do, thereby reducing costs. If the Postal Service was required to deliver other types of mail on Saturday, delivery employees would have to continue stopping at each address on a route, thereby negating the projected costs savings.
Further, the claim that five-day mail delivery would eliminate 81,000 jobs is erroneous. In fact, the current plan for five-day mail and six-day package delivery is expected to result in the reduction of approximately 25,000 full-time equivalent positions, which will be accomplished
through attrition, as has been the case for past complement reductions.