Your United States Postal Service: “Congress Broke It, Congress Must Fix It”

 The controversy over the Postal Service’s efforts to close or consolidate the Salem Processing and Distribution Facility along with several other Oregon such mail processing sites is being repeated in hundreds of American communities, as the USPS prepares to close more than half of the nation’s 460 mail processing centers.

In Salem, OR and cities and small towns across the country, business owners, citizens, community leaders and elected officials have demanded the USPS withdraw plans that will slow down mail delivery, kill jobs, and hurt local and state economies.

 At dozens of public meetings held to address community concerns, the Postal Service’s answer has been essentially the same: Facility closures and “radical” Area Mail Processing changes are necessary to help solve the current USPS financial “crisis,” or so they say.

 But in positing these radical initiatives the Postal Service is unable or unwilling to substantiate any real savings, and many observers---including members of Congress—have charged that USPS estimates are wildly inflated.

 And the cost of closures / consolidations will be high: The Postal Service announced December 5, 2011 that massive closures will force the USPS to eliminate historic overnight delivery for First-Class mail, periodicals, and publications, change next-day delivery to at least two days, and extend two-day delivery to at least three day. In all likelihood delivery times will in actuality be extended even further.

 Locally, closing mail processing plants means residents and businesses may not---likely will not--- receive bills, payments, prescriptions, online purchases and community newspapers, advertisements, etc. on time or in the timely manner heretofore accustomed to.

 

• For example: Copies of the Statesman-Journal, Wall Street Journal and USA Today, which are now processed at the Salem P&DF and normally delivered the same day as published will now be processed in Portland and delivered 2-9 days after the publish date. For local weekly publications and periodicals the delivery delays could be even worse.

 Nationally, dismantling the USPS distribution network and infrastructure will have a severe impact on companies that rely on the Postal Service to conduct business --- to deliver bills and catalogues, return payments, distribute information about products and services, and deliver goods to customers. The Postal Service is the linchpin of a $1 trillion private-sector industry that employs some 8-9 million Americans and generates more than $65 billion worth of mail annually. Some 7% of the Gross Domestic Product is derived directly from the mailing industry and the employees that  serve it.

 Closing postal facilities also will have a devastating impact on millions of individual citizens who rely on the mail to connect them to their communities and the nation at large. Nearly 40% of Americans do not yet have access to broadband internet service and yet millions more do not avail themselves to the Internet who do have access to such service. Nearly 28% of Americans have no internet service at all. Approximately 55% of consumers still receive hard-copy bills and statements.

 Fortunately, the massive proposed postal closures are unnecessary. Congress created the problem and Congress can fix it---with little or no cost to the taxpayers.

 The principle cause of the Postal Service’s current financial crisis is largely misunderstood. To be sure, although First-Class mail has declined rapidly over the past four years (largely due to the recession), online bill paying and other forms of electronic communication are only part of the problem.

 The primary cause of the Postal Service’s dire and continuing financial situation is a mandate imposed by Congress in 2006 that requires the USPS to “pre-fund” healthcare benefits for current and future retirees. This obligation drains approximately $5.5 billion annually from USPS accounts to fund a 75-year obligation—in just 10 years! No other government agency or private sector business bears such an onerous burden.

 Were it not for this financial chokehold that Congress created in 2006 in the PA&E Act, the Postal Service would have netted a $611 million surplus during Fiscal Years 2006-2010 instead of racking up a $21 billion deficit!

 In addition, the Postal Service has “overfunded” both of its retirement accounts by billions of dollars. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management, which oversees these accounts, has concluded that it cannot allow the USPS to reclaim these funds without congressional authority.

 In response to the fiscal squeeze placed on it by Congress, the Postal Service has proposed to close thousands of post offices (in fact has already closed hundreds of post offices), slash its mail processing network, and in so doing eliminate prompt mail service for the nation’s citizens and businesses.

 Unfortunately, the one positive postal reform bill pending in the Senate (S.B.-1789) fails to adequately address the problems. Although The 21^st Century Postal Service Act as it currently exists would reduce the level of retiree healthcare pre-funding, the annual cost of pre-funding would continue to impose significant debt upon the USPS and would result in the unnecessary cuts in service the Postal Service is planning.

 There’s a much better solution: Congress must repeal the pre-funding requirement, allow the USPS to recover the billions of dollars in overpayments to its retiree funds, and in so doing protect service to the American postal customer.

 Resolving the Postal Service’s financial crisis would free up the funds the Agency needs to maintain service standards, protect the mail processing network, prevent the closing / consolidation of plants, prevent the closing of rural post offices and retail units in “undesirable” urban areas, retain six-day delivery, and further modernize. For the USPS to remain relevant in the digital age, Congress must permit it to offer new products and services, which are currently restrained by law.

 The USPS network is a vital part of the nation’s infrastructure. Destroying it will lead to the demise of the world’s largest, most efficient and most trusted mail system---one that our founding fathers expressly enumerated in the Constitution. Americans have a right to a cost-efficient postal system that ensures the universal service obligation, which is essential to our democracy. Nothing less will suffice.

 Congress manufactured the Postal Service’s financial crisis, and Congress must fix it---NOW!

 

Bob Patterson / Past-President

Salem Area Local #604

American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO

503-399-9512 / 503-510-8073 (cell) or ledawg6@msn.com