NALC: Senate Will Not Consider Postal Bill Next Week
Dear Supporter,
Thanks to you and your brothers and sisters across the country, S. 1789 will not be brought to the Senate floor next week. We were successful in delaying a floor vote on S. 1789 because letter carriers called their senators and urged them to oppose the bill in its current form.
S. 1789 is still on the docket, though, and it might be brought up in the near future. Therefore, it is imperative that you continue to check your e-mail and the NALC website for the most up-to-date information regarding further action on S. 1789.
The NALC is continuing to work with Senate leadership and our allies in the Senate to reform the bill before the Senate considers it for passage.
This week, you did your part to protect the future of the United States Postal Service and, when I call on you again, I know you will take action to keep the pressure on the Senate to do the right thing.
Thank you for your continued efforts.
In Solidarity,
Fredric V. Rolando, President
National Association of Letter Carriers
Congressional Budget Office Analysis of Senate postal reform bill
SUMMARY
S. 1789 would change the laws that govern the operation of the United States Postal Service (USPS). Major provisions of the bill would:
Transfer more than $11 billion in surplus retirement contributions from the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund (CSRDF) to the Postal Service Fund;
Change the payments that the Postal Service is required to make to the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund (PSRHBF);
Permit the Postal Service to reduce mail delivery from six days per week to five;
Authorize the Postal Service to offer employees credit for additional years of service as an incentive to retire; and
Reduce payments to most federal workers receiving benefits under the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act (FECA) and reform the administration of that act. In addition, other provisions of S. 1789 would aim to help the Postal Service reduce its costs and increase its revenues. Read more
Senate Will Weigh Proposals To Save USPS After White House Submits Its Own
Filed under: politics, postal, postal reform, usps, white house
TWO SENATE BILLS, USPS PROPOSALS CONFLICT
WASHINGTON – Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Joe Lieberman, ID-Conn., Ranking Member Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Federal Financial Management Subcommittee Chairman Tom Carper, D-Del., Tuesday praised Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe for offering a bold plan that attempts to stave off the U.S. Postal Service’s (USPS) imminent bankruptcy. But they did not endorse all of his proposals. Read more
NAPS President to Testify Before Senate Panel on Postal crisis
Filed under: NAPS, postal, postal news, postal reform, press releases, usps
Senate SubCommittee to Hold Hearing On USPS September 6
U.S. Postal Service in Crisis: Proposals to Prevent a Shutdown
Live video will not be available until approximately 15 minutes prior to the scheduled hearing start time.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
02:00 PM
Dirksen Senate Office Building, room SD-342
USPS Proposal To Senate Would Deny Communities Right To Appeal Post Office Closures
The following is a legislative update from the National Association of Postmasters of the United States:
Postmaster General Legislative and Financial Briefing
On Tuesday, February 15, President Bob Rapoza and Director of Government Relations Bob Levi attended a postal briefing conducted by Postmaster General Pat Donahoe, Chief Financial Officer Joseph Corbett and Vice President for Government Relations Marie Therese Dominguez. Also attending were the presidents and legislative staff of the other postal employee organizations.
The presentation covered President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2012 Budget, the Postal Service’s 5-Year Plan, and a new legislative package that the Postal Service shared with Senators Tom Carper and Susan Collins. The President’s budget proposal would grant modest financial relief to the Postal Service, and strives to provide the USPS access to the $55 billion in pension overpayments. The USPS argues that the 5 year trend lines for postal solvency are dispiriting – even with aggressive administrative action – and that a comprehensive legislative approach, which includes a reduction in delivery frequency is required. The USPS’ new legislative package to the Senate includes a series of amendments that would make it easier to close Post Offices and would deny communities the right to appeal closures to the Postal Regulatory Commission. NAPUS has already registered our strong opposition to this proposal to Senators Carper and Collins.
Proposed Legislation Floating Around Senate Could Make It Easier To Close Post Offices
Filed under: NLPM, post offices, postal, postal news, Postmasters, usps
From the National League of Postmasters
September 10, 2010
Draft legislative provisions are floating around the Senate that 1) eliminate the prohibition against closing, for financial reasons only, small rural post offices and 2) gut the statutory Post Office Closing Provisions that are designed to protect rural communities.
The League believes that such provisions are not in rural America’s best interest, and will do what is necessary to see that these provisions do not become law. We will be monitoring closely if this draft legislative provision becomes a bill and gains sponsorship. The League will provide updates on any change in the status of this important Legislative issue.
Mark W. Strong
President
National League of Postmasters
see PDF file from National League Of Postmasters
Letter Carriers Union President Rolando Urges Senate Panel to Help Postal Service by Reforming Pre-Funding Requirement
WASHINGTON—The head of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) union urged Congress today to reject a Postal Service proposal to eliminate Saturday mail delivery to American citizens as a quick fix to the financial problems of the U.S. Postal Service, saying that lawmakers should instead implement recommendations of the USPS Office of Inspector General to save the Postal Service tens of billions of dollars in unnecessary retiree health pre-funding payments by returning the $75 billion it has been overcharged for civil service pension costs.
NALC President Fredric V. Rolando said “action on the pre-funding requirement is the best starting point for a long-term strategy to preserve affordable universal service, a strategy that must include product innovation and revenue generation as well as efficiency improvements developed in negotiations for new employee contracts.”
The postal Inspector General (IG) issued a report in January (“The Postal Service’s Share of CSRS Pension Responsibility,” Report Number: RARC-WP-10-001) that found that the Postal Service had been overcharged by $75 billion going back to 1971, when the USPS was created, for pension costs associated with pre-1971 service by employees of the taxpayer-funded Post Office Department. The IG recommended that the accurately measured ‘postal surplus’ in the Civil Service Retirement Fund be transferred to the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund, which would allow Congress to repeal the crushing pre-funding payments for retiree health now required by law.
In a statement submitted to a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Federal Service and General Government, Rolando said the U.S. Postal Service “is too important to the country to make rash decisions in an environment of financial distress.”
Rolando characterized the proposal of Postmaster General John E. Potter to discontinue Saturday mail delivery and collections as “draconian.” He said such an action “should be a last resort policy, not a first resort policy.”
“The 200,000 men and women who deliver the mail on city carrier routes today urge you to exercise great caution and to stop and consider the real cause of the immediate crisis: the unworkable and unreasonable pre-funding policy adopted in 2006,” Rolando said. “Congress should correct the retiree health pre-funding policy first – it is the single most effective step you can take to stabilize the Postal Service’s finances.”
Rolando acknowledged that in addition to pre-funding reform the Postal Service’s business model deserves a serious and comprehensive debate in order to secure the long-term viability of the Postal Service.
“NALC and the other postal unions are prepared to deal with the lingering effects of the recession and the negative impact of the Internet at the negotiating table, just as we have adapted to varying business conditions for some 40 years of successful collective bargaining,” he said.
“We believe that it is only in the context of financial stability that a serious and careful legislative debate can take place,” Rolando concluded. “That will require us to do our part at the bargaining table and for Congress to do its part on retiree health pre-funding reform.”
House Subcommittee Chair On USPS Running For Kennedy's Senate Seat
According to the Boston Globe via Govexec:
Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service, and the District of Columbia and an outspoken advocate for federal labor unions, is apparently ready to throw his hat into the ring to succeed the late Sen. Ted Kennedy. According to the Boston Globe, the legislator from South Boston has taken out the paperwork to run in the January special election.