It appears likely that the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will conduct a vote on a new bill authored by Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) on Wednesday afternoon, May 7. The most recent draft of the bill is very similar to the postal proposal included in President Obama’s fiscal year 2015 budget. The bill would permit the USPS to move to 5-day letter mail delivery, encourage the USPS to convert door delivery to curbside and centralized delivery, put into law the current POStPlan process, permanently extend the 4.3% exigent postage increase, recalculate the USPS pension liability using postal-specific data, refund to the USPS its Federal Employee Retirement System overpayment in 2 annual installments, restructure its retiree health premium pre-funding payments, and promote state and local partnerships. Based on a cursory review of the Issa draft, it appears to differ from the White House proposal by requiring the USPS to make a 50% payment of its retiree health liability in 2015 and 2015, $2.85 billion and $2.9 billion; the President’s proposal waives the 2015 and 2016 payments.
In addition to being very similar to the President’s plan, the bill overlap with provisions in S. 1486, the Carper-Coburn postal bill. All this being said, it remains to be seen whether Issa embracing Obama’s postal proposal will garner any Democratize votes. Also, it is unclear whether the chairman can persuade GOP members of the committee to withhold, or vote against amendments that distance the bill from the President’s proposal.
via NAPUS
The most insightful and revealing article I have seen to date is found in this link:
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/23471-deride-and-conquer-dismantling-the-usps
As usual, it’s all about the money$$$. After all, the USPS is a multi-billion dollar cash cow. As a bonus to some politicians, it’s also home to a very large workforce composed of Union workers.
Read it and learn.
Going green, save trees save earth!
We’ve been down this road so many times. Now is the time to take action. 5 day all the way! Do it and do it now as nothing is getting better!
ISSA a real dilemma ain’t it ? Still kickin’ over them rocks lookin’ fer Commies !
The USPS is being done in by a Congress of millionaires more than by their business practices. USPS does not operate too differently than UPS or Fedex, and in fact they work together much of the time (Fedex has been the top supplier for over 11 years, UPS has been in the top 12).
For Congress to reform USPS on the backs of postal workers should send a chilling message to all American workers. It should make any American Worker ponder,”Will they be next.” Congress has just defeated a bill to raise the minimum wage. To think this is a Congress elected by the people FOR the people. Unfortunately, Congress has been anything but for American workers. But yet we are relying on this same Congress to “fix” USPS. Let’s get real!
USPS handles 40% of the world’s mail. I wonder if Congress realizes if their so-called fixes fail it will have an adverse affect on the economy of not only here in America but the world as well. In addition, the sancity of the mail is at risk by allowing Congress to cheapen postal operations by quick fix proposals.
On a side note: A way of helping USPS is to return all those self-addressed envelopes and post cards that private business sends out. It doesn’t add to green house gases and the companies pay more than regular postage when they are returned. In the long run, mail has been pretty safe. In the short run, the Internet has been anything but safe. Not to mention, the cost involves in operating an Internet account. Plus,the Internet costs goes up much faster than stamps and hackers are so ever persistent in stealing personal info.
Darrell Issa is a criminal check his past he is a shady character
Be happy with 5 day as it should be 3 day for residential
5 DAY! YES WAY! NO SATURDAY!
I say we flush any and all of Issa bills down the toilet.