USPS Financial Rescue May Not Stop 'Death Spiral'

Some members of Congress are poised to give the Postal Service some relief to its crushing financial requirements. But it's far from a done deal.
 

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) introduced the U.S. Postal Service Improvements Act of 2011 (S. 353) Feb. 15. The ranking member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee introduced a similar bill last session of Congress. The latest version of her legislation calls on the Office of Personnel Management to redetermine the postal surplus or supplemental liability as of the close of fiscal 2010, and for each year thereafter through 2043. That surplus would remain in the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund until distribution is necessary as long as USPS meets certain criteria.

 

Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), ranking member of the Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, U.S. Postal Service and Labor Policy, will follow Collins' lead and introduce a version of the bill as early as this week.
 
"We collectively, and by collectively I'm referring postal management, workers, mailers and the administration as well as this Congress, must come to the realization that some difficult decisions made rather quickly in order to address the Postal Services current financial situation," said Lynch during a subcommittee hearing Wednesday. "However before we tackle issues such as changing delivery frequency, cutting services and laying off hard working Americans, there are certainly some more palatable actions we should consider first."

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