The Obama administration released its 2013 budget proposals today. Here is what the budget included for the Postal Service:
Provide Postal Service Financial Relief and Undertake Reform.
The Administration recognizes the enormous value of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to the Nation’s commerce and communications, as well as the urgent need for reform to ensure its future viability. USPS faces long-term, structural operating challenges that have been exacerbated by the precipitous drop in mail volume in the last few years due to the
economic crisis and the continuing shift toward electronic communication. Bold action is needed to ensure that USPS can continue to operate in the short-run and achieve viability in the longrun.
To that end, the President is proposing a comprehensive reform package that would:
1) restructure Retiree Health Benefit pre-funding in order to accelerate moving these Postal payments to an accruing cost basis and reduce near-year Postal payments;
2) provide USPS with a refund over two years of the $10.9 billion positive credit balance in Postal contributions to the FERS program;
3) reduce USPS operating costs by giving USPS authority, which it has said it will exercise, to reduce mail delivery from six days to five days starting in 2013;
4) allow USPS to increase collaboration with State and local governments; and
5) give USPS the ability to better align the costs of postage with the costs of mail delivery while still operating within the current price cap, and permit USPS to seek the balance of the modest one-time increase in postage rates it proposed in 2010. These reforms would provide USPS with over $25 billion in cash relief over the next two years and in total would produce savings of $25 billion over 11 years.
Increase in federal employee retirement contributions
In order to make reasonable changes to Federal worker retirement, while maintaining the ability to attract and retain highly qualified individuals, the Administration proposes to increase the employee contribution toward accruing retirement costs by 1.2 percent over three years beginning in 2013. While Federal agency contributions for currently accruing costs of employee pensions would decline, these Federal employers would pay an additional amount toward unfunded liabilities of the retirement system that would leave total agency contributions unchanged.
Under the proposed plan, the amount of the employee pension would remain unchanged. We estimate this proposal will save $27 billion over 10 years. In addition, the Administration is proposing to eliminate the FERS Annuity Supplement for new employees. Overall, these changes are not expected to have a negative impact on the Administration’s ability to manage its human resources, nor inhibit the Government’s ability to serve the American people.
Read Entire 2013 Budget Proposal (Large PDF file)
do away with saturday delievery and save 3 billion dollars a year. tired of doing pivots to show an 8 hour day to a computer. if there’s not enough work for a letter-carrier, what does managment do all day? i know one office in bridgewater n. j. where they have 5 supervisers. they make ther own work up just to justify there jobs. offer early retirement. i know some letter- carriers that are almost 70. let’s get real.
WHAT UP OBAMA….You’re sticking it to us……..Might as well vote for a fuckin CONSERVATIVE……..You’re turning your back on us lefties…WHY?
We know reform is inevitable and some measures will be enacted we may not care for, such as increasing our amount we have to put toward retirement and not getting any more back. For existing employees, that’s better than Dennis Ross’ bill that would take all our FERS annuities away from us while making us pay for them anyway, but President Obama is proposing doing away with the annuities altogether for new employees.
That is not going to attract quality personnel to the Postal Service. If those new employees are not required to pay into a FERS fund, giving them the option to purchase their own 401k’s or annuities through other sources, such as insurance companies, for example, that would be tolerable. If, however, removing FERS annuities while demanding new employees contribute to it is a possibility, then that’s a huge rip off that nobody in their right mind would agree to. We’ll get more details on that development soon.
Meanwhile, we should be calling or e-mailing our Representatives and Senators voicing our concerns over this budget proposal, whether it’s five day delivery or our retirements. I think five day delivery is inevitable due to the lack of volume, but screwing with our retirements is something else entirely. Obama is not acting like a Democrat at all in this proposal. I’m not voting for him for re-election because he’s nothing but a moderate conservative. If I wanted a conservative president, I would have voted for one.
Call Your Senators:
202-224-3121
(Capitol Switchboard)
[Click here for direct #s]
Tell them you Support
S. 1789 as it is currently written
The U.S. Senate soon will likely debate the 21st Century Postal Reform Act (S. 1789), bill offering Early Retirement Incentives.
As president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, I understand the budgetary and market challenges facing the USPS. However, these issues don’t result from an outdated organization.
S. 1789 should not be dramatically restructured, Congress should approve this bill ,S.1789.
Fredric V. Rolando is the president of the National Association of Letter Carriers
incentives to be combined.
1. 25,000 cash.
2. 3 years added on to your FERS retirement.
3. 1 year added on to your FERS retirement.
GOOGLE……….U.S. SENATE………Choose your “SENATOR HOME” State. Look for the area in which to write and send your comments.
S.1789 is the last hope for anyone wanting the Early Retirement Incentives.
The NALC, APWU , and Obama Support the buyouts.