3/22/18 WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senators Tom Carper (D-Del.), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) introduced The Postal Service Reform Act of 2018: Improving Postal Operations, Service, and Transparency to stabilize, preserve and improve the Postal Service – an essential part of our nation’s infrastructure and economy.
The financial condition of the Postal Service, which operates at the center of a $1.4 trillion industry and employs more than 7 million people, has been deteriorating for years. Despite the Postal Service setting a record on Dec. 18, 2017, when more than 37 million packages were delivered, the most packages delivered in a single day in their over 200-year history, the Postal Service saw a net loss for the first quarter totaling $540 million. In addition to reporting net losses for the 11th year in a row and defaulting on their legally mandated multi-billion-dollar retiree health prefunding payments yet again, the Postal Service also, for the first time, missed payments they owe to the federal retirement system in 2017 ? for a combined total of $6.9 billion. For years now, the onerous prefunding schedule for future retiree healthcare obligations has put the Postal Service in a place where it must cut costs ? often at the price of service ? and ultimately prevents them from investing in the infrastructure they so desperately need. While the situation is one that is dire, it is also one that can be fixed through needed legislative reforms.
The Postal Service Reform Act of 2018 includes a comprehensive package of reforms that would put the Postal Service on firm financial footing, stabilize and improve service performance, allow for the development of new products and services, and enhance transparency.
“Nearly two and a half centuries after its founding, the Postal Service remains an important part of our everyday lives and plays a vital role in our economy,” said Senator Carper. “But it continues to lose money at a record pace. Our economy still depends on a healthy and robust Postal Service. It’s our duty in Congress to pave a fiscally sustainable path that will enable this American institution to thrive”
“The U.S. Postal Service has a significant history in Kansas – dating back to the Pony Express – and it continues to play a vital role in the American economy, especially in Kansas’ rural communities,” said Senator Moran. “Rural America depends on a reliable Postal Service. USPS’s deteriorating financial condition threatens its future and the well-being of the communities it serves. In order to provide certainty for rural America and protect taxpayers, Congress must act to put the Postal Service on a more sustainable path. This bipartisan legislation would provide some much needed stability, preserving and improving mail services across Kansas and the country.”
“There is no substitute for the Postal Service in rural America,” said Senator Heitkamp. “From receiving daily newspapers and prescriptions, to shipping products around the nation, families and businesses across the country rely on getting their mail on time in an accessible, affordable manner. Congress needs to act now to stabilize the Postal Service and give it the tools it needs to thrive – otherwise it will go insolvent, taking this critical service away from rural communities that need it. Across North Dakota, I’ve heard about problems with mail delivery and service and I’ve pushed for changes from the Postal Service through my Fix My Mail initiative. Now, our bipartisan, comprehensive bill would reform the Postal Service, put it on firmer financial footing, and help improve mail delivery and service in rural communities. Far too often, rural America gets the short end of the stick, and Congress needs to step up and pass our bill so the Postal Service can fully function and remain the great equalizer that enables Americans no matter where they live to get reliable, affordable mail delivery.”
“Post office access and efficient service are issues that families and businesses in rural Missouri care about, and we’ve got to do what it takes to ensure the service they’ve relied on for generations stays intact,” said Senator McCaskill. “This is an issue where we can and should continue to work together across the aisle and I’m committed to doing exactly that.”
Stakeholders in the industry also support the bill:
“It is vital that Congress act promptly to pass legislation that will ensure affordable, reliable mail service six days a week,” said Don Hall, CEO of Hallmark Cards, Inc. “I applaud the leadership of Senators Carper, Moran, Heitkamp and McCaskill in crafting legislation to achieve that goal and respond to the concerns of leaders in the House of Representatives.”
“The Association of Magazine Media commends Senators Carper, Moran, Heitkamp, and McCaskill for their leadership,” said Linda Thomas Brooks, president and CEO. “The introduction of this bill is an important first step toward securing the future of the American postal system and the many industries that rely on it to do business – including our own.”
“The very broad business mailing community represented by the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service endorses the Postal Reform Act of 2018 and appreciates the hard work by the bipartisan sponsors to get to this point. The extreme financial challenges overhanging the Postal Service have been evident and building for a number of years, with a day of real reckoning coming later this year. The industry and other stakeholders have sought help only Congress can give throughout this time to no avail. Now is the time for Congress to act before it must bail out the system with taxpayer dollars or radically shrink it.”
“The United Postmasters and Managers of America (UPMA) applauds the efforts of Senators Carper, Moran, Heitkamp and McCaskill in introducing bipartisan legislation to further the goal of providing financial relief to the U.S Postal Service, helping safeguard a universal postal system, and encouraging innovation,” said UPMA co-presidents Tony Leonardi and Sean Acord. “UPMA looks forward to continue working with these Senators and other members of Congress to sustain the U.S. Postal Service, a proven national treasure.”
“NNA supports the hard work these bill sponsors have done to ensure a reliable and affordable mail service,” said Susan Rowell, publisher of the Lancaster (SC) News, and president of the National Newspaper Association. “Congress has lingered far too long over the needed corrections in postal policy, and as a result the continuation of this service is ever more seriously at risk. Our elected officials know the Postal Service must have a better set of laws for its operation, and they ignore this need at the peril of all of us who rely upon the mail. We strongly urge the Senate to take up this bill and give this proposal, which has bipartisan support, an opportunity to pass this year.”
For the last several sessions of Congress, Senator Carper, Senator Heitkamp, Senator Moran, and Senator McCaskill have held numerous briefings, roundtables, and meetings with members on both sides of the aisle and postal stakeholders to assess the hurdles facing the Postal Service, identify the tools the Postal Service needs to innovate and thrive in the 21st century, and find a way forward on postal reform.
Specifically, the bill:
Increases Sustainability
The Postal Service Reform Act eliminates the existing statutory payment schedule, cancels any outstanding payments, and amortizes payments over 40 years. The bill would also create a new Postal Service Health Benefits Program (PSHBP) within FEHBP, implemented and administered by OPM, for all postal employees and annuitants and require all Medicare-eligible postal annuitants and employees enrolled in the PSHBP to also enroll in Medicare, including parts A, B and D. This is essential for protecting the American taxpayer from a future bailout and for protecting the employees’ benefits in retirement.
Improves and Stabilizes Postal Service and Operations
The price of postage is decreased pursuant to federal court orders last Congress, eliminating the positive revenue stream from the exigent rate case in 2014. As the result of a compromise among the postal community, the bill restores the half of the temporary rate increase while freezing any further rate increases until a new rate system can be finalized by the Postal Regulatory Commission.
Prioritizes the Postal Customer with Service Improvements & Protections
The bill includes strong service reforms that put the postal customer first by improving mail service performance across the country—especially in rural America—while also requiring transparency and enforcement to ensure the Postal Service’s accountability. Service performance would also be stabilized by preserving current service standards for at least 2-years.
Innovates and Modernizes Existing Postal Business Model and Increases Transparency
The bill also allows the Postal Service to introduce new non-postal products and services, ship beer, wine and distilled spirits, and partner with state and local governments in offering government services.
The Postal Service Reform Act also increases transparency of Postal Service delivery results and would require that all delivery and retail performance results are posted in a transparent and user-friendly way.
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I hope these political people try out retirement for themselves.
GREAT? We are all depending on one incompetent group to fix whats wrong with another incompetent group? Just where did all that money go? If only all us employees would work for slave wages and no benefits!
When will the games end? How is this shell game going to improve anything? Carriers, clerks, mail handlers, truck drivers get ready. Bend over and grab both ankles cause your about to get rear-ended again, while the greedy hogs get fatter! No worker in this country will ever get a fair, decent working living wage. The greedy are in charge and make the rules. How long will they keep this authority over the majority?
This page was edited ? and fact checked ? the person responsible for these tasks is paid ? per year.
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for the first time, missed payments they owe to the federal retirement system in 2017 ? for a combined total of $6.9 billion. For years now, the onerous prefunding schedule for future retiree healthcare obligations has put the Postal Service in a place where it must cut costs ? often at the price of service ? and ultimately prevents them from investing in the infrastructure they so desperately need.”
Incompetence lives at postal-reporter.com
Sen Carper and friends go on Medicare prior to passing the bill and I say go for it.
Two very significant changes happened in 2017. The 10 year stream of very large ($5-6 billion year) payments ended and all remaining money owed (including missed payments) was recalculated and amortized into a 40 year payment plan. Second, the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) was tasked with reassessing postal rates and the cap on rate increases. The PRC has issued a preliminary recommendation and after reviewing public comments to this preliminary recommendation is likely to allow changes to rates, lift the artificial rate cap, and provide, through rate increases, the USPS the money needed to conduct operations and pay their bills, including for future retiree health care.
Carrier Chuck I hate to say this, the health care mandate DID NOT END IN 2016. The provision is still in effect!
The pre funding mandate ended in 2016. The P.O. didn’t pay the last 4 payments of it and nothing has happens to them so why is this still an issue? Are they still reliable for it? Who knows. Is the P.O. maxed out at $18 billion on an operating line of credit? Yep. Have been for 2 years with no repayment at all, and yet our checks are still getting cashed, the lights are still on at the P.O., and our LLV’s are still getting filled up with gas. My point is both sides can spin and turn #’s anyway they want to and try to get Congress to be on their side by throwing $ at them. That’s all these bills are. Nothing changes and nothing ever will. I had a retired postmaster who started as a clerk in the early 1970’s tell me last year that he heard the same issues when he started…… P.O. is broke, need reform now, need to eliminate Saturday delivery, ect. Nothing changes people or is going to change. Go to work, do your job, cash your check and ignore the noise.
If some comments here are accurate, it does sound like just a lot of legal money laundering, putting the onus on we retirees and taking away the choice to enroll in Medicare. My wife is disabled, and Medicare works pretty good for us especially in hospital stays, but those objecting to the possible forcing of we retirees into Medicare and its increased costs have their points, too.
As a 32+ year city letter carrier at the time of retirement, I fully concur that we have paid our dues – with our backs, minds and bodies. We should not be expected to shoulder the load for the USPS’ woes because we didn’t put it there in the first place.
Management gets to duck the issue as usual, it would appear. Brennan, a horrible lying incompetent PMG in the worst sense of the word, should be fired immediately, as should all management that supports her dismantling efforts of plants, and bald faced lying to Senators and Representatives about her “concerns” for people to get their mail on time.
We have read several articles here from different parts of the country, the latest from Brooklyn, NY describing the terrible mail service, going days without delivery or pickup, and management’s refusal to address the situation beyond their lame bullshit press releases. And if this bill was to have anything truly good about it, it would look at the enormous ratio of management to craft, and see as “Dick Tator” points out (nice name there, Dick) there is roughly one manager for every three to four employees. That the USPS is severely bloated with featherbedding useless ass kissers should be obvious to anybody, but is that even considered by the “concerned” Senators on this committee? Watch Carper – he’s a slime bag who spoke at an NALC convention preaching the Gospel we all wanted to hear, and turned around and tried to screw us over.
Retirees deserve the respect for the decades of service we performed (most of us, anyway – there are some among us who were absolutely worthless, I must acknowledge in the interest of fairness – through mass murders in Edmond, Oklahoma, Royal Oak, Michigan, individual robberies and murders of carriers just trying to do their jobs, going into the most gang infested and dangerous neighborhoods of our cities every single day in every type of weather imaginable and some of the most abusive sadistic supervisors and managers on the planet.
I also agree with “Dick Tator” that a full independent audit by a non-related committee or government entity be conducted before any reform legislation is passed. Every stone must be overturned for signs and proof of gross incompetence, negligence, abusive behavior and criminal activity at all levels of the USPS right up to Megan Brennan herself. It’s long overdue, and we retirees might breathe easier if said committee could uncover lost billions in mismanaged revenue and find ways to sensibly restructure the system that would do no harm to craft, active or otherwise. Time for responsibility for leading the USPS in the worst imaginable way possible is now.
It is extremely bad government policy to attack retirees and change their earned and assured benefits post retirement by forcing postal retirees to enroll in Medicare or forfeit the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) coverage which they have earned as a benefit of long years of federal government employment. This health care proposal breaks a longstanding promise, and retirement agreement, to federal government retirees by removing their choice as it relates to their health care and forcing them to pay additional health insurance premiums or lose their earned health insurance coverage. This is simply unfair, unprecedented, and bad policy. These retirees have made important life decisions based on assurances by their government and their benefits should not be changed and government commitments to these individuals at the time of their retirements must be honored.
The Postal Service Health prefunding for health care DID NOT end two or three years ago! Law is still on. Don’t let the facts get in the way! Extend the health care prefunding to all employers in America, or end the Postal Service’s mandate. And as for ever “bailing out the Postal Service off the back’s of the tax payer”, many private corps. leach off the tax payer. It’s called corporate wealthfare. This is the same country that has a man running for the U. S. Senate that was convicted for violating mine safety laws. Don Blankenship spent one year in a Federal prison for being convicted. Now he has much support from miners in W. Virginia. So don’t expect too much from our non working government, or from citizens that don’t care.
The pre funding mandate ended 2 or 3 years ago, but I’m glad they keep harping on that. Nothing like beating a dead horse. This bill isn’t any different than every other since 2010 and yet we see how far those went…… this is nothing more than Congressmen and women taking union $ through PAC’s and saying how they are standing up for the PO. This is really getting quite old, and I’m getting tired of our unions telling us how much they need us to donate $ now…… our jobs depend on it!! Ok. I’ll just wait another 10 years and give then- when we hear the same thing that we will hear for the next 10 years, which is the same thing we heard for the last 10. Same story, different verse
Hmmm….This new Senate bill looks similar to the bill that is going nowhere in the House of Representatives. Specifically the Ways and Means Commitee in the House have said they would not support the shifting of Postal retiree’s into Medicare. The Ways and Means Committee have oversight over Medicare. Congress would achieve something if they just repealed the 2006 law that caused this mess.
Again, nothing about eliminated the prefunding mandate. Instead, again, their “solution” is to FORCE postal employees into medicare at an additional cost of $130/month which would be used and spent elsewhere.
In other words, FORCING postal employees to bail out the usps with their own money and breaking employment/retirement promises.
Being FORCED into medicare was not a condition of employment or retirement and should not be now.
Bunch of corrupt, unethical sleazeballs, one and all.
$130.00 a month is just the start.
Just watch it go up every year until you have a choice to either have health care or become homeless.
It’s a guaranteed source of money for the Govt. to use as they please at our expense!
Here we go again!!! Sen. Carper was instrumental in passing the bill (PAEA) that started this whole mess!!! The only thing he wants to do is to bail out the USPS on the backs of RETIRED FEDERAL WORKERS AND MEDICARE! How many times will he try the same old BS….you know what they say about people that do something over and over again and expect different results! Come up with something new for crying out loud….something creative that will not impact retirees, who did their time (30 years) and just want what they earned and what rightfully belongs to them!! Leave us alone!!!
This attempt is to be fast tracked.
Mandatory Medicare D is a new twist.
Who speaks for us?
The postal service cannot give better service without hiring people and that is not going to happen.
this bill will be DOA-as it should be.
so all the postal fanooks who always say the Postal Circus does not operate on Taxpayers money have been found to be lying…….they used to sneak around the back door of the US Treasury until they were told 50 Billion is your limit….they have not paid back one thin dime. now the dopes are going to throw more good money after bad down this rat hole…..let it sink or swim….they ran it into the dirt. got to keep the post office model of diversity alive….the heck with a real business model where you make money. no money for this place until a full audit by an outside concern……me I would let this stage 4 cancer cell implode on itself. with 380,000 workers you do not need 110,000 po mismanagers! and for God’s sake get rid of this Obammy holdover Muffin Brennen……….what a loser!
good luck with that.