From left to right: PMG Potter, Sen. Carper, Se. Collins, Rep. Davis, President Bush, Rep. McHugh at signing of Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (PAEA).
12.22.14 WASHINGTON- As the 113th Congress ends, Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.), Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, renewed his call for Congressional action on comprehensive postal reform and called on the incoming 114th Congress to make the issue a top priority:
“More than 200 years after its founding, the Postal Service remains an important part of our lives and economy. But it continues to face financial challenges that threaten its future. For years, the Postal Service has worked hard to compete in the age of the Internet – keeping prices as low as possible, reducing its fixed costs, and innovating where it can. But its leadership can only do so much without new authorities from Congress, and without hurting service quality. Congress needs to free the Postal Service of its financial and legislation constraints and give it the opportunity to modernize and grow through innovation.
“The Postal Reform Act of 2014, which I introduced with Dr. Tom Coburn, offered a comprehensive and bipartisan solution to the Postal Service’s financial challenges that would prevent collapse, protect millions of mailing industry jobs, and allow the institution to adapt to a digital age. Unfortunately, my colleagues and I in the Senate were not able to come to consensus in time to move forward. As a result, in the absence of reform, it’s likely that the Postal Service will shortly be forced to continue to take a number of unpopular measures on its own to cut costs. These are cuts I tried hard to prevent. But because Congress has failed to act, the Postal Service cannot afford to continue with the status quo.
“While we were not successful this Congress, we’ve made important progress. This is not the end of our effort. I am committed to working with my returning and new colleagues in Congress, the Administration, and stakeholders to build on our efforts and find a solution that works for the Postal Service, its customers and its employees, and give it the tools it needs to survive and prosper in the years to come. It won’t be an easy process, but it is something that must be done.”
Senator Carper also called on the Senate to take up the Postal Board of Governors nominees early in the 114th Congress:
“Because of Congress’ inability to come to a consensus on postal reform legislation this year, the Postal Service’s fate continues to twist in the wind. Customers and other stakeholders are now left with uncertainty about what the future holds for the Postal Service. Unfortunately, the Senate made that uncertainty even worse with our failure to consider the nominees for the Postal Board of Governors. The Senate adjourned leaving the Board of Governors without a quorum and forcing the Board to take steps to ensure it can respond in the event of emergency circumstances. It would be unacceptable to leave any business with a more than $60 billion operational budget without a functioning board, especially at a time when that business is struggling to address a number of financial challenges. Our inaction represents a failure to meet part of the Senate’s most basic responsibilities: to provide advice and consent on nominations in a thorough and timely manner and to provide agencies with the leadership they need to be successful. My Senate colleagues and I must come together and right this wrong by promptly acting on the nominees for the Postal Board of Governors as soon as possible in the 114th Congress.”
If Congress would step aside and elevate someone who has the best interests of the Service at heart, The Postal Service would thrive. Beyond 50 billion in over payments to CSRS and 11 or so billion in over payments to FERS, keeps us in their sights. Is any other Government agency expected to turn a profit? Does the term cash cow mean anything to anyone?
This Holiday season should make it obvious to anyone who has doubts that we still provide an essential service. I don’t care what side of the political fence you reside on. This back and forth finger pointing is pointless. I purchased my home and educated my children thanks in large part to The Postal Service. And anyone who doesn’t have it’s best interests at heart can kiss my ass. Happy Holidays.
Bla bla bla….. absolutely nothing will happen with postal reform next year either. The unions will block anything that potentially affects their membership numbers and around and around we go….. same story, another year
Carper said:
“I MAY NOT BE A SMART MAN, BUT I KNOW WHAT LOVE IS”
If Sen.Tom Crapper was so concerned about the future of the Postal Service, then why didn’t he push for a moratorium on any more post office and plant closures in the omnibus spending bill going to Obama’s desk?
All under the Obamanation administration… Reid, Pelosi, the Village Idiot, EarAche Holder… The whole darn bunch of liberals in the White House, are to blame… They own it but won’t take responsibility to fix it… DemocRATS stopped it… Republicans will fix it soon enough…
Congress needs to shut up and get out of the way.
they have been part of the problem, not the solution.
If they wanted to help they could have 5 years ago
Carper is a LIAR. The USPS is solvent. The fact of the matter is Carper as a congressman shepherded the Postal reform act that required USPS to pre-fund health care benefits 75 years into the future, it is this $5 billion dollar a year payment that Carper and all the other LIARS use to show that the post office is losing money.
Remove the prefunding of health care and post office is showing $2 billion a year in profits.
Prefunding mandate ends with fiscal year 2016. Not sure if that is end or beginning of 2016. We are almost done with it anyways, but congress is going to really accelerate the cutting of service, etc. so that they can claim they fixed it.
Is this the same Senator that just tried to pull a fast one on the Postal Service (the last minute) with the Omnibus Bill–can someone shed some light on what happened there and what this guy actually means here in this article?!
I really do not understand what politicians are trying to do but this guy is a democrat so I really do not get it-is he or is he not trying to help the service?
Yes, the same one,
(c-span,gov,postal reform hearing)
Democrat in name only. Carper is out to slash us into oblivion just like Issa and Coburn. He pretended to be a friend of the NALC and like all politicians was lying out his ass.
When the figures come in, provided they’re somewhat accurate, and that’s always a concern when the USPS releases any kind of data, and show the record parcel season we had this year and the revenue from it, it will make reform even more unlikely if it shows we’re making a profit. Maybe that’s better – with a “friend” like Tom Carper, you don’t need enemies.
WOW!! They got the sack to have that picture!! That was the signing of THE U.S.P.S. DESTRUCTOIN!!
Tom Carper thinks he can be some kind of hero by saving the Post Office, even though it was him and the rest of Congress that caused all of the problems in the first place. Please, Carper, you and the rest of Congress need to stop “helping” the Post Office; every time Congress helps anything, it gets worse.