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2011-09-27 10:06 PM

Postal employee
LAKE CHARLES, LA
Posts: 1

I just wanted to thank Mr. Ed along with the President of the American Postal Workers Union for bringing some awareness to the public about H.R. 1351 which seems like a no brainer to me when it comes to saving USPS service for the public along with jobs and collective bargaining rights established more than 30 years ago. Who benefits if H.R. 1351 fails? Please help and support H.R. 1351 and oppose H.R.2309 which would destroy current services that have remained intact for over 200 years.

2011-09-28 09:39 AM

Zach F
Denton, TX
Posts: 944

I've never felt that something should be maintained just because it has been around for 200 years, however, USPS needs to stay. They provide a necessary, all inclusive service. They do many things that people don't even know about. A huge boon to our society will be lost if the Postal Service goes under.

2011-09-29 12:32 AM

jws
Spanaway, WA
Posts: 1

let's say the word this is discrimination against the usps.

2011-09-29 08:30 AM

Schmidt
Colorado Springs, CO
Posts: 1058

If everyone understood what H.R. 1351 was all about, they would be solidly behind it. So let's be clear about what it fixes. In the lame duck session of Congress in late 2006, the Republicans controlled both the House and the Senate and passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA), which was then signed by President Bush on December 20, 2006. The Act made 150 changes to postal law, but amongst those provisions was the Establishment of the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund, Sections 801 to 803, which:

"change the USPS from funding its retirees’ health care costs from an out-of-pocket or pay-as-you-go basis to prefunding these obligations. To this end, the PAEA requires the USPS to pay more than $5 billion annually from FY2007 and FY2016 to build up a retirement fund from which both USPS employees and USPS retirees will be paid come FY2017. The funds previously deposited in the escrow account were used to seed this new fund."

Without this $5 billion annual payment, the Postal Service is profitable. Critics have said that Sections 801 to 803 effectively require the Postal Service to fund the pension fund within 10 years to cover future workers 75 years into the future...workers who haven't even been born yet. Some have called it a "poison pill" targeting the postal service union as it makes it impossible to function profitably without reducing the number of postal workers, mostly in rural America. Furthermore, it imposes a burden on the postal service that is "unheard of" in the corporate world...or for any other public service entity.

Why did the Republicans insert this provision into the 2006 Act,? Was it a subtle act of vindictiveness knowing that they had lost the House and Senate in the November elections? The postal workers union is the largest public service union in the country, and the provision in this act would ultimately make the postal union the target in any budgetary battle.

There are two bills currently pending in the House. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is withholding action on H.R. 1351 while advocating his own bill, H.R 2309, which according to the APWU "would destroy the Postal Service as we know it."

On the other hand, "H.R. 1351 would allow the Postal Service to apply billions of dollars in pension overpayments to the congressional mandate that requires the USPS to pre-fund the healthcare benefits of future retirees. No other government agency or private company bears this burden, which forces the Postal Service to fund a 75-year liability in 10 years — at a cost of more than $5 billion annually. Without the mandate, the USPS would have shown a surplus of $611 million over the past four fiscal years."

“Now is the time for all postal workers to urge their U.S. representative to support H.R. 1351,” Reid said. The legislation, introduced by Rep. Steven Lynch (D-MA), would prevent the financial collapse of the USPS — without closing thousands of post offices, eliminating hundreds of mail processing facilities, delaying mail delivery, laying off 120,000 workers, cutting postal workers’ pay, or ending collective bargaining rights."

We all need to get behind H.R. 1351 and at the same time rally against Darrell Issa's bill. Of course, Darrell Issa is not for America. His brand of Republicans are relishing the thought of adding 120,000 postal workers to the unemployment ranks to make "Obama look bad." Party first...

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