On Wednesday, June 23, 2010, at 2:30 p.m. in room 342 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, the House Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service, and the District of Columbia and the Senate Subcommittee on Federal Management, Government Information, Federal Service, and International Security will hold a joint hearing entitled, “Having Their Say: Customer and Employee Views on the Future of the U.S. Postal Service.”
The economic downturn and the continued electronic diversion of mail, coupled with an aggressive retiree health pre-payment schedule have combined to put the Postal Service in financial crisis. A recent analysis of the future of the mail conducted on behalf of the Postal Service showed that mail volume may not recover along with the economy – further deteriorating the Postal Service’s financial condition in the years to come. Moreover, in its April 12 report entitled, “U.S. Postal Service: Strategies and Options to Facilitate Progress Toward Financial Viability,” the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found the Postal Service’s current business model is not viable. To that end, the upcoming joint hearing is intended to provide customer and employee stakeholders an opportunity to discuss the economic difficulties currently facing the Postal Service and to respond to plans postal management and GAO have put forth to address them.
“Having their say: customer and employee views on the future of the US Postal Service
J Jameson, You hit the nail right on the head! and of course they will never give us or the public an answer (the TRUTH ANYWAY) this was always Bush’s GOAL to screw the USPS so that they can force us to go PRIVATE! hopefully someone at the PRC like Ruth Y Goldway can stop this before we are in a bigger hole that we can’t dig our way out! She knows that PMG POTTER is part of this, I only wish we could find a way to throw him out, and get a NEW PMG! one who wants to save the USPS and has NEW IDEAS, not an old wash up PMG like POTTER! who wants to just CUT SERVICE and DESTROY the USPS. He acts like he cares about the USPS, but his ACTIONS speak louder than words!!
Hello, in your article comcerning the postal hearing being held in the Dirksen building, you told of the “aggressive retiree health prepayment” that the Postal Service is under.
I question your use of the word “aggressive”. Does aggressive mean that this is a useful business strategy that the Postal Service is implementing. The answer is no! Congress forced the USPS to adopt the prepayment of a yearly $5.5 billion that is killing the USPS.
Do other federal agencies use this same strategy? No, is again the answer.
Do any other private companies or corporations use this formula has an efficient way to pay retiree health benefits? No, is again the answer. This was foisted on the Postal Service by the Bush administraation as a way to force the Postal Service into a financial situation they could not live with.
Does anyone know who came up with this strategy and why? Again, no is the answer as the cu;prits are safely hidden behind their congressional and senatorial robes.
Does anyone know why it is not being repealed by the congress as we are in a terrible recession and it is both unwarranted and unneccessary? No, redundant isn’t it, that no one in the media has the time or the interest to ask WHY!
So, wrapping it up, “aggressive” in my mind, is an extremely poor choice of a word fo describe a change in the history of our country.