The U.S. Postal Service, our great national treasure, is under attack. Mail service to the American people is suffering. And a great public institution is threatened with privatization.
- On Jan. 5, 2015, overnight delivery of first-class mail was virtually eliminated.
- All mail throughout the country is being delayed. (This includes medicine, online purchases,
local newspapers, organizational bulletins, letters, bill payments and invitations.) - More than 140 mail processing facilities have closed since 2012, and 82 more are scheduled to close in 2015.
- Retail work is being sent to Staples, at more than 1,500 stores throughout the country;
- Door delivery is being eliminated in most new housing developments;
- Chronic understaffing frustrates customers and slows the mail, and
- Six-day delivery is under constant threat.
Doesn’t the Postal Service’s Financial Crisis Make Cuts in Service Inevitable?
ACTUALLY, NO.
Despite headlines announcing that the USPS has lost billions of dollars, the Postal Service isn’t broke. To be more precise, it isn’t losing money sorting and delivering mail.
The USPS financial crisis is a manufactured one. It was caused by Congress, and Congress can fix it – without using a dime of taxpayer’s money.
The fundamental cause of USPS financial difficulties is a provision in the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA), which requires the Postal Service to make payments no other public or private entity must make: The USPS is required to fully prefund future retiree health benefits 75 years in advance over a 10-year period – at a cost of approximately $5.5 billion per year. The Postal Service’s “losses” are the result of the prefunding requirement.
If not for that requirement, the Postal Service would have done quite well financially over the last few years. Based on its operations, it had a surplus of $1.1 billion in the first quarter of fiscal year 2015, $1.4 billion in fiscal year 2014 and $600 million in fiscal year 2013.
If the pre-funding mandate were lifted, the future of the Postal Service would be bright!
The U.S. Postal Service belongs to the American people. Let’s ensure that it remains a vibrant, public Postal Service for generations to come!
