[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 136 (Wednesday, September 14, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1630-E1631]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     IN SUPPORT OF THE WORKERS OF THE UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. LAURA RICHARDSON

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 14, 2011

  Ms. RICHARDSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the 685,000 workers 
of the United States Postal Service (USPS), who face a devastating 
future which may close thousands of post offices, eliminate hundreds of 
mail processing facilities, lay off 120,000 of their colleagues, cut 
their pay, and end their collective bargaining rights.
  Each day, the USPS processes an average of 584 million pieces of mail 
and delivers to 146 million addresses. In my home State of California 
alone, there are a total of 38,000 active and retired letter carriers.
  These employees are fixtures within their communities and are some of 
the most dedicated, hardworking people out there. That is why I have 
been a strong advocate for letter carriers throughout my career in 
public service.
  The United States Postal Service offers the most affordable postage 
in the industrialized world, while being able to sustain efficient 
delivery schedules at no expense to the taxpayer.
  Established in 1775, the Postal Service and the thousands of families 
who depend on it now face an unprecedented crisis.
  Since 2006, an unsustainable retiree healthcare system has saddled 
the USPS with a $5.5 billion overcharge to be paid in full at the 
beginning of every year. Based on longterm projections which are 
routinely called into question, this fund has established an enormous, 
unused surplus, estimated by the Postal Regulatory Commission and the 
Inspector General of the Postal Service to be between $55-75 billion.
  No other Federal agency or private business is forced to pre-fund 
retiree health benefits in this manner. Since it is not funded by 
taxpayers, this requirement puts the USPS at a distinct competitive 
disadvantage. Fixing this problem would allow the Postal Service to 
compete more effectively with the private sector and return to 
profitability.
  Without this mandate, the USPS would have actually been profitable to 
the tune of $611 million over the last 4 years, saving its $15 billion 
line of credit from the U.S. Treasury to ride out the bad economy. 
Instead, the entire agency, which has not taken taxpayer funds for 30 
years, is facing default. Its line of credit is nearly exhausted.
  Mr. Speaker, the real financial struggles at USPS do not stem from 
the cost of labor, but from the 2006 congressional mandate requiring 
the USPS to pre-fund future retiree benefits.
  Unfortunately, House Republicans are bent on destroying the Postal 
Service as we know it and using this crisis as an opportunity to weaken 
collective bargaining rights.
  The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee conducted a 
hearing in April entitled: ``Are Postal Workforce Costs Sustainable?'' 
Led by Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, this hearing was held to 
investigate a recent agreement between the USPS and the American Postal 
Workers Union.
  Chairman Issa's decision to hold a hearing to scrutinize and 
interfere with the collective bargaining process represents a dangerous 
precedent that could lead to more GOP interference in labor-management 
agreements.
  In June, Chairman Issa proposed H.R. 2309, the Postal Reform Act of 
2011, which would establish a ``solvency authority'' with the power to 
unilaterally cut wages, abolish benefits, and end protection against 
unfair layoffs. It orders $1 billion worth of post office closures in 
the first year and another $1 billion worth of facility closures in the 
second year. It also ends Saturday deliveries.
  Mr. Speaker, 6-day delivery is an important service that the USPS 
provides to the American people and is vital to its long-term 
sustainability. Ending Saturday deliveries reduces incentive for the 
American people to send mail through USPS and would lead to more jobs 
lost and larger reductions in service.
  If Saturday delivery ends, it is possible that 80,000 full- and part-
time jobs could be eliminated. At a time when we are still recovering 
from the worst economic recession since the Great Depression, now is 
not the time to put thousands of jobs in jeopardy.
  The USPS estimates that cutting deliveries on Saturday will cut costs 
by 5 percent, but will slash mail delivery by 17 percent. Clearly the 
money saved by eliminating Saturday delivery is negligible and does not 
justify the lapse in efficiency and the loss of jobs that would 
certainly follow.
  Reducing mail delivery service to 5 days a week would cause delays in 
the delivery of mail and would inevitably lead to increased costs due 
to the overtime Postal Service workers will be forced to endure in 
order to handle the backlog of mail. It is also vital for seniors who 
depend on mail-order prescription drugs and small businesses that need 
Saturday delivery to meet payroll.
  Most importantly, ending Saturday service will remove the Postal 
Service's key strategic advantage over its competitors and result in a 
massive loss of revenue for the program.
  We can't allow House Republicans to pursue an agenda that threatens 
the wellbeing of thousands of working families in California and across 
the Nation. They want to turn back the clock on the progress that has 
been made over the last century to ensure that American workers have 
the right to organize and demand fair wages and benefits.
  We cannot stand by while thousands of American workers lose their 
jobs, and House Democrats are putting forth solutions that will take 
immediate steps to end this crisis without cutting jobs or resorting to 
taxpayer funded bailouts.
  Take for instance H.R. 1351, the United States Postal Service 
Obligation Recalculation and Restoration Act of 2011, which would 
realign the Postal Service's retiree health prefunding schedule to a 
larger time period consistent with what the Postal Service can afford. 
It would do this by first establishing the exact size of the surplus 
and then transferring it to the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits 
Fund where it belongs.
  Furthermore, when the Post Office Department became the Postal 
Service in 1971, employees who belonged to the Federal pension fund 
started contributing to the new Postal Service. For employees who 
worked for both the Post Office Department and the Postal Service, the 
Federal and the postal pension funds shared responsibility. However, 
the Federal fund paid for retirements based on 1971 salaries, not final 
salaries. In essence, the Federal fund collected full contributions, 
but paid only partial benefits. The USPS was shortchanged $75 billion 
as a result of this error.
  H.R. 1351 takes necessary steps to correct this by altering the 
methodology used to determine the allocation of costs for retirement 
benefits between the Federal government and the USPS. By making these 
changes, Congress

[[Page E1631]]

has the ability to significantly help the USPS cover its expected $238 
billion shortfall for the next decade.
  Now more than ever we must fight to preserve the legacy of the letter 
carrier and promote the value of the services that the workers of the 
United States Postal Service provide to millions of Americans every 
day.
  H.R. 1351 is supported by the National Association of Letter 
Carriers, the National Association of Postal Supervisors, the American 
Postal Workers Union, the National Rural Letter Carriers' Association 
and the National Postal Mail Handlers Union. Advocating for working 
people is very personal and important to me. You see, you are looking 
at a Member of Congress who had the opportunity to have a mother who 
was part of a bargaining unit, who was a member of a union.
  She had an opportunity to have someone advocate on behalf of not only 
herself, but her two daughters as well. And because my mother had that 
support, she was able to send her daughters to good schools, she was 
able to put braces on our teeth, and she was able to ensure that, yes, 
that little girl back in Los Angeles, California, would have an 
opportunity to one day become a Member of Congress.
  Now more than ever, postal workers, teachers, firefighters, police 
officers and all other public employees must stand together to protect 
their jobs and their families, in California and across America.
  Mr. Speaker, the alternative to H.R. 1351 is a violent downgrade of 
Postal Service operations which would cost tens of thousands of jobs 
immediately. Between their recent willingness to hold the nation's 
economy hostage for spending cuts and their attacks on worker's rights 
in Wisconsin, it appears that House Republicans would risk a total 
shutdown of the Postal Service if it meant further weakening the rights 
of public sector unions.
  That is why I stand with 192 of my colleagues in our support for the 
thousands who play an essential role in connecting our people and 
building our communities. We cannot afford to lose so many jobs and 
hard-won benefits by failing to act on a common sense fix to an 
immediate crisis.

                          ____________________