 The proposal would lift the agency "from the brink of bankruptcy,"
said Sen. Joe Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Homeland and
Governmental Affairs Committee.The Postal Service lost $8 billion
last year and could report even larger losses when its 2011 budget
year report comes out in mid-November.
"We're not crying wolf here" about the agency, said Sen. Susan
Collins of Maine, the top Republican on the committee.
Lieberman said that next week the committee would take up the
proposal, which also would encourage cuts in postal office staffing
and refund agency overpayments to the federal retirement system.
The Postal Service said it welcomed the proposal.
Joining in the announcement were Sens. Tom Carper, D-Del., who
heads the subcommittee with jurisdiction over the Postal Service,
and Scott Brown of Massachusetts, the top Republican on that panel.
A separate overhaul plan sponsored by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.,
is awaiting action by the full House. Issa said he looked forward to
working with the Senate on resolving postal problems.
According to the Senate bill:
-
The Postal Service
would receive a refund of nearly $7 billion it has overpaid into
the Federal Employee Retirement System.
-
The agency would
be required to use part of the refund to set up a buyout program
aimed at reducing staff by 100,000.
-
Agency payments of
about $5.5 billion into an account to fund future retiree health
benefits would be reduced by spreading out the payment schedule.
-
The postmaster
general could negotiate with unions on a possible alternate
health care system that would cost less.
-
Mail delivery
would have to continue at six days a week for at least two
years. After that, if the Postal Service wanted to reduce
deliveries to five days, the independent Postal Regulatory
Commission would have to verify that other cuts have been made
and the savings still were not enough to ensure financial
viability.
-
The workers' compensation program would
be overhauled. Currently the Postal Service has 2,000 workers
over age 70 receiving workers' compensation. Switching them to
retirement programs could save money.
[to top of second column] |
"Without taking controversial steps like these, the Postal
Service is simply not going to make it, and that would be terrible,"
Lieberman said.
Mail volume is down 22 percent since 2007, largely because of the
combination of people switching to the Internet to communicate and
pay bills. The recession has discouraged advertising mail.
"Jobs are at stake," said Collins.
The Postal Service is at the center of a $1.1 trillion mailing
industry that employs 8.7 million people in direct mail, printing,
paper-making, catalog sales, fundraising and other businesses.
Art Sackler of the trade group Coalition for a 21st Century
Postal Service said the Senate plan was "smart and balanced," while
Tony Conway of the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers believe it would
"provide needed relief for the Postal Service and ensure the
continuation of critically important mail delivery."
Reed Anfinson, president of the National Newspaper Association
and publisher of the Swift County, Minn., Monitor News, said the
measure "takes a critical step toward a stable Postal Service."
[Associated Press;
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID]
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.
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