Postal Traumatic Stress: Congressional Disorder

Could your business pay 75 years of future retiree health benefits over the next 10 years? Finding alternatives to such a crushing unfunded mandate makes agreeing on ways to keep the U.S. Postal Service a sustainable enterprise difficult to say the least. In 2012 the Senate passed a bill that would have kept Saturday delivery intact for another two years, and avoid local closures. However, a House bill could not gain bipartisan support, so the battle goes on. Early this month, legislation filed by Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Carper and the panel's ranking Republican, Tom Coburn outlines a plan that re-introduces many of the cutbacks omitted from the earlier Senate bill. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has lashed out against this as an impediment to improving USPS business. Said Sanders, “The Postal Service is an institution of enormous importance to the American people. It must be preserved and protected." He unveiled  an alternative plan that would alleviate the benefit burden placed on the USPS. According to Sanders, if the plan was currently in force the USPS would be profitable. Needless to say, the four major postal unions take pointed exception to the provisions of the latest bill. Read More