[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 58 (Monday, April 23, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2579-S2585]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2011--MOTION TO PROCEED
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will
resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 1925.
Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be
permitted to speak as in morning business.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Tragedy at L'Ambiance Plaza
Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, on this day, almost exactly at this
hour, 25 years ago in Bridgeport, CT, the L'Ambiance Plaza became a
scene of devastation and destruction and death. Almost every year in
these 25 years we have commemorated that destruction and tragedy with a
ceremony. We did the same this morning in Bridgeport. We went first to
the site and then to city hall and then to lay a wreath at the memorial
for the 28 workers who were killed on this day 25 years ago. L'Ambiance
is ground zero for worker safety.
I rise today to talk about all who have been injured or lost their
lives because of unsafe work conditions.
L'Ambiance Plaza was a tragedy, but it was not the result of human
error, it was the result of an employer cutting corners to put profits
above safety. It was an avoidable and preventable catastrophe.
One of the tasks we have as public officials is to ensure basic
safety for our citizens, particularly for workers who leave their homes
in the morning hoping for nothing more than to come home at night to
their families, put food on the table and a roof over the heads of
their children. Those 28 workers who perished on this day 25 years ago
wanted nothing more than those simple opportunities that should be
guaranteed in the United States of America, the greatest Nation in the
history of the world.
In protecting workplace safety, we have an agency called the
Occupational Safety and Health Administration, known as OSHA. It is
charged by this Congress and every Congress since its creation with
setting standards and providing for enforcement of those standards so
as to ensure basic safety for workers when they leave home every day
and go to their jobs.
In Bridgeport, at L'Ambiance, a technique of construction known as
lift slab was in use. It was under review by OSHA. It had been under
review for 5 years before the L'Ambiance collapse. In 1994, years after
L'Ambiance, it was prohibited unless certain conditions were met. If
that standard had been in effect on this day 25 years ago, 28 lives
would have been saved.
This morning I was in Bridgeport for that ceremony with many of the
families who must live with the tragedies of their loved ones having
perished needlessly and tragically on this date. There were speeches.
There was a bell-ringing ceremony. There were tributes not only to the
workers and their families but also to their brothers and sisters who
searched with a ferocity and determination in the hours and days for
their remains after it became clear they could not be rescued. But none
of today's ceremonies or any of the other ceremonies in the past 25
years can bring back those workers who perished because lift-slab
construction was used on that site. And when the upper story fell
first, all of the bottom stories collapsed as well, meaning that those
who worked under that top story could not be saved.
Eventually, when OSHA adopted the standard to be applied to lift-slab
construction, it said no one could work under that top story when it
was put in place. OSHA, in short, recognized the hazards of lift-slab
construction well before L'Ambiance collapsed, and its inaction over
the process of adopting those regulations--the 8.7 years it took to
adopt the standard--contributed significantly to the collapse that
occurred 25 years ago to this day.
I wish I could say OSHA has learned from this horrific incident at
L'Ambiance. I wish I could say the standard setting that is so
necessary to be achieved promptly and effectively now is done
routinely. Unfortunately, the contrary seems to be true.
I wish to thank Senator Harkin, the chairman of the Senate Committee
on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, for a hearing last week that
illuminated so dramatically how much work there is still to be done.
The GAO has done a study showing that average length of time to
complete these standards is more than 7 years. That figure takes into
account the standards set since 1981 to the year 2000. The final number
of regulations published by OSHA has declined every decade since the
1980s. While 24 final standards were published in the 1980s, only 10
final standards were published between 2000 and 2010.
Workers are still at risk because regulations are delayed for years.
One example is that the dangerous health effects resulting from the
inhalation of silica dust, found in common sand, have been widely known
for many years. Silica dust has been classified as a carcinogen to
humans by the U.S. National Toxicology Program. It is a known cause of
lung cancer and silicosis, an often fatal disease. Yet, despite the
scientific evidence and the
[[Page S2580]]
hazards associated with silica dust, its use on worksites across the
country is ineffectively regulated by inadequate OSHA standards, and
those standards have been on the books since 1972.
Preventing the dangers of silica is simple and easy. Employers simply
must ensure that when cutting materials, the blade must be wet to
ensure the silica dust is not airborne--simple and easy solutions that
can be achieved by standards OSHA has a responsibility to set.
According to OSHA agency officials, they began work on updating the
effective silica standards back in 1997, more than 14 years ago. The
most recent proposal for a new silica standard was submitted to OMB in
February 2011. OMB has been processing that draft for over a year. In
the meantime, workers are put in danger, workers contract disease, and
workers are put at risk of fatal disease. These lengthy delays are
simply unacceptable. As the L'Ambiance tragedy demonstrates, standards
delayed is safety denied. Workers and their families suffer real-life
consequences when the Federal Government fails to implement effective
standards to protect people in their workplaces. OSHA itself estimates
that up to 60 worker deaths per year could be prevented by
strengthening the silica regulation and other regulations from 1972.
Yet the new rule continues to be delayed by procedural and political
roadblocks.
There is still work to be done, and I hope we will make progress,
under Senator Harkin's leadership, on an OSHA rule making standards
more effective and more easily adopted.
There are a number of simple and easy steps that can be adopted.
Expediting approval of safety standards is one of them. Despite a
general consensus within industries on permissible exposure limits--
that is, PELs--to dangerous chemicals, OSHA rules for hundreds of those
chemicals haven't been updated for nearly four decades. OSHA should
direct and Congress should direct OSHA to update obsolete PELs to
reflect consensus among industries, experts, and reputable national and
international organizations.
Easier court approval also must be enabled. The current standards for
judicial review are a major factor in effecting the timeline of OSHA's
standard-setting process. The existing ``substantial evidence''
standard requiring that OSHA research all industrial processes
associated with the issue being regulated is disproportionately
burdensome when compared to the requirements placed upon other Federal
agencies, and the standards should be reevaluated.
Finally, deadlines for timelines for standard setting should be
adopted, directed by the Congress, to minimize the time it takes OSHA
to issue occupational safety and health standards. Experts and agency
officials agree that statutory timelines for issuing standards should
be imposed by Congress and enforced by the courts.
I look forward to working with my colleagues on these measures and
others, and I hope the memory of those 28 workers who were killed 25
years ago on this day will inspire and move us to take action as
quickly and effectively as possible. But each year others are added to
that list in other sites in Connecticut--49 last year alone--and around
the country, hundreds in the States of my colleagues in this body. Let
their memories also inspire us to redouble our efforts to protect
people in the workplaces around Connecticut and the country.
Mr. President, I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Coons). The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. UDALL of Mexico. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. UDALL of New Mexico. I ask unanimous consent to speak for 10
minutes as in morning business.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Postal Reform
Mr. UDALL of New Mexico. Mr. President, I rise today in support of my
amendment to strike section 208 from the postal reform bill. Section
208 would authorize the U.S. Postal Service to move to 5-day delivery
service within 2 years.
The U.S. Postal Service faces significant financial problems. Changes
must be made for the Postal Service to adjust to a digital world. The
budgetary concerns are very real--we all know this--but an imminent
reduction in service to 5 days a week is not the answer. No. 1, a shift
to 5-day service could result in the loss of up to 80,000 jobs
nationally. Is this the time to be proposing 80,000 layoffs? No. 2, 5-
day service would undercut a market advantage the U.S. Postal Service
currently has over its competitors. No. 3, especially in rural America,
many of our businesses and most vulnerable citizens depend on 6-day
postal delivery. Newspapers, advertisers, pharmacy delivery services,
and senior citizens all could be hurt by the loss of Saturday service.
Last week I met with the community of Mule Creek in New Mexico. Mule
Creek is small and rural. Folks there told me that they have no cell
phone service, no high-speed Internet. They depend on their post
office. It is the lifeline, the center of their community--and not just
5 days a week. For many working people, Saturday is the only day they
can sign for packages, including for delivery of prescription drugs.
I know some of my colleagues believe moving to 5-day service is
necessary because of the Postal Service's financial problems, but we
need to give the changes we are making in the bill a chance to take
effect. Two years simply isn't enough time before we make such a
drastic and far-reaching change. We should not rush prematurely to 5-
day service.
I urge support for my amendment to protect jobs, to strengthen the
competitiveness of the Postal Service, and to protect the millions of
Americans who depend on that service.
Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. CORKER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. CORKER. Mr. President, how much time do I have? I understand it
might be 10, 15 minutes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The time is not controlled.
Mr. CORKER. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about amendment No.
2083, which I am offering to the bill that is before us.
I think all of us know the U.S. Postal Service is absolutely not
sustainable in its current form. Mail volume has greatly declined over
the past decade and will continue to do so over the next decade. The
U.S. Postal Service has known this for a long time. They knew that mail
volume was declining and that the market for their products was
changing. But the economic crisis made things far worse than they could
imagine.
Now the Postal Service is on the edge of financial ruin. But we
didn't get here only because of the economic crisis; it is because the
U.S. Postal Service's business model is fundamentally broken. The USPS
lost $5.1 billion in this last fiscal year and $3.3 billion in the
first quarter of the current year. I know some have tried to blame the
requirement that the USPS prefund their retirement health benefits for
the USPS's financial losses. But the fact is that these recent losses
are not due to the prefunding requirement because Congress has allowed
the USPS to delay this last year's payment. The U.S. Postal Service has
also nearly reached its statutory borrowing limit.
Faced with this situation, it is abundantly clear that the USPS must
make radical changes in its existing infrastructure and business model.
Again, USPS should have, could have, and indeed has wanted to begin
making these changes to its outdated, excessive infrastructure, but
Congress--all of us here or at least some of us here have blocked these
attempts. We should give the USPS the flexibility to meet these
challenges and make business decisions on how to deal with the paradigm
shift in their primary market rather than further limiting their
ability to adapt.
My amendment to S. 1789 gives the U.S. Postal Service greater
flexibility in three primary areas: facilities and service, pricing,
and labor.
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On facilities and service, it allows the U.S. Postal Service to
continue closing post offices using the existing procedures for post
office closures--they already exist--instead of creating further
barriers to closure, which this bill does. These procedures are well
thought out and give ample opportunities for public comment and appeal.
It also allows the Postal Service to proceed with its proposed change
in delivery service standards--something it has proposed--which is a
key component of its 5-year plan of profitability.
This amendment also allows the Postal Service to immediately
implement 5-day delivery, if it chooses--a move the U.S. Postal Service
believes may save nearly $2 billion a year. The underlying bill, on the
other hand, requires a 2-year delay and further study of this issue,
which the Postal Service already knows needs to happen. Mr. President,
we don't need a study to tell us what we already know. The Postal
Service needs flexibility in its delivery schedule.
A number of interested parties, including the Postal Service and the
President of the United States--the President--support moving to a 5-
day delivery. Furthermore, my amendment allows the Postal Service to
close processing and distribution centers, something the Postal Service
has identified as needed action for nearly a decade.
On pricing, my amendment removes the arbitrary CPI-based cap put in
place by the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act. Put
simply, this gives the Postal Service more flexibility to adjust their
prices as markets change.
Current law and S. 1789 actually mandate the Postal Service provide
some services at a loss. It is unbelievable the calls we have been
receiving in our office that basically point to the tremendous
corporate welfare that is in existence--people calling me not wanting
these changes because it affects their business. A congressional
mandate that the U.S. Postal Service provide certain services without
covering their costs makes very little sense.
Please note, this would not allow the Postal Service to arbitrarily
raise rates at will. They would still be subject to Postal Regulatory
Commission--the PRC--regulation.
Finally, on labor, my amendment gives the Postal Service greater
flexibility to reduce its workforce as needed and negotiate contracts
that make sense for its financial situation. Since labor costs make up
approximately 80 percent of the Postal Service's cost structure, it is
clear that any good-faith postal reform proposal must include labor
reform.
First, it prohibits the inclusion of a no-layoff clause--and let me
underline this--in future collective bargaining agreements. It does not
alter CBAs currently in place that contain these clauses. This is only
for future clauses. As mail volume continues to decline, the Postal
Service must have the flexibility to change the size and makeup of its
workforce as needed.
Second, this amendment eliminates a provision in existing law that
requires fringe benefits for Postal Service employees be at least as
good as those that existed in 1971. These benefits represent a huge
portion of fixed labor costs which currently place a major burden on
Postal Service operations. Eliminating this provision will give the
Postal Service more options in contract negotiation rather than
hamstringing them.
My amendment is a balanced approach that strives to give the U.S.
Postal Service maximum flexibility in multiple areas as they work
toward financial stability. Here is the best part. According to CBO--
which just contacted us today--this bill saves $21 billion for the
Postal Service over the next decade. Let me say that one more time. CBO
has just contacted us. The Postal Service is now in tremendous
financial straits, and we have a bill before us that hamstrings them
and keeps them from doing the things we all know if this were a real
business we would allow to happen. My amendment gives them the
flexibility to do the things the Postal Service needs to do and that
most every American understands they need to do and the amendment saves
$21 billion over the next 10 years.
It is my understanding, by the way, there is no attempt to offset the
cost of this bill over the next 10 years.
In conclusion, it is clear the Postal Service must make drastic
changes, and I applaud those portions of S. 1789 that allow the USPS
greater flexibility. But there are far too many provisions in the
underlying bill that would put more restrictions on the U.S. Postal
Service, not fewer, and limit the organization's ability to adapt to
changing times and so I urge support of my amendment.
I thank the Chair for his time, and I suggest the absence of a
quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, it pains me greatly to disagree with my
friend and colleague from Tennessee, with whom I have a great
friendship and great respect, but what he is essentially offering comes
pretty close to a complete substitute for the provisions in our bill,
and I wish to go through the provisions to make sure our colleagues
understand fully what the choices are that are presented by Senator
Corker's amendment.
First, let me say I do strongly oppose his amendment because of the
impact I believe it would have on postal customers, whether they are in
rural America, whether they are a big mailer, a small mailer, a
residence or a business, and what the impact ultimately will be on
postal revenue. Let us first discuss the issue of 6-day delivery.
There are a lot of different views on this issue. Senator Corker has
presented one, as has Senator McCain, of moving immediately to 5-day
delivery. On the other hand, there are Members who have filed
amendments who want to prevent the Postal Service from ever moving to
5-day delivery. Here is what is in our bill.
Our bill recognizes the Postal Service should, if possible, avoid
deep cuts in its service. Certainly, eliminating 1 day a week of
delivery is a deep cut in the service it is providing. It recognizes,
however, that if the Postal Service cannot wring out the excessive cost
that is in its current system, it may have no choice but to eliminate
Saturday delivery in order to become solvent.
What we do is allow a 2-year period during which time the Postal
Service would implement the many cost-saving provisions in our bill,
including a workforce reduction of 18 percent--which is about 100,000
employees--through compassionate means, such as buyouts and retirement
incentives, and then have the GAO and the PRC--the Postal Regulatory
Commission--certify that despite undertaking all these cost-saving
moves, it is not possible for the Postal Service to return to solvency
without this deep service cut. But to move immediately to eliminating
Saturday delivery would come at a real cost and it may not be
necessary. It may not be necessary at all.
I would also point out the experts in this area are the members of
the Postal Regulatory Commission. The experts are not at CBO. The
experts are the regulators of the Postal Service--the PRC. When the PRC
examined the issue of eliminating Saturday delivery, here is what it
found. First of all, it found the potential savings were far less than
the Postal Service estimated. In fact, they were half as much as the
Postal Service estimated.
Second, they found that eliminating Saturday delivery put rural
America, in particular, at a disadvantage because rural America often
does not have access to broadband, to Internet services, and to
alternative delivery systems. So the PRC, which looked at this issue
very carefully and issued a report, found the savings were less by half
and the consequences were far more severe for rural America.
Saturday delivery also gives the Postal Service itself a competitive
advantage over nonpostal alternatives. If we are here trying to save
the Postal Service, why would we jeopardize an asset the Postal Service
has that its competitors do not? That is why we came up with this
carefully crafted compromise on this issue.
I believe cutting Saturday delivery should be the last resort, not
the first
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option, because it will inevitably drive away customers. That is one
reason the American Newspaper Association is so opposed to doing away
with Saturday delivery. It is one reason many of the mail order
pharmaceutical companies are so opposed, because many seniors depend on
receiving their vital medications through the mail.
Again, we have said if there are no other alternatives, this measure
could proceed. But I can't imagine any large business operating this
way--cutting service first. My colleagues often talk about how
important it is to let the Postal Service act like a ``real business.''
But this is the last thing a real business would do. Real businesses
know their most valuable asset is their customer base. Businesses do
literally everything else before slashing service and raising prices or
anything else that might alienate or drive away their remaining
customers, and they do not do this out of the goodness of their hearts
but because they understand what drives their bottom line.
The fact is, if more customers leave the Postal Service, the revenue
will plummet. Again, reducing service--eliminating Saturday delivery--
should be the last resort, not the first option. That is exactly what
our bill does.
The Senator's amendment would also repeal the CPI link to postal
rates. I am at a loss as to why the Senator would propose that.
Eliminating that protection, that orderly system, would be devastating
for many mailers. Again, mailers need predictable, steady, stable
rates.
Think of a catalog company that prints its catalogs so many months in
advance. It now can count on what the postal rates are going to be.
Under the amendment of the Senator from Tennessee that stability, that
predictability would be gone.
The reason in 2006 that we rewrote the rate-setting system was that
it had been an extremely litigious, time-consuming system. Both the
mailers and the Postal Service hated the system that we had prior to
2006. Both agreed at the time that it was important to have stability
and predictability in rates and to have a system that didn't involve
this very expensive, litigious rate-setting system. So we went to the
CPI link system so we could have stable, predictable, and transparent
pricing increases.
This amendment repeals the section of the current law on rate setting
that mailers have repeatedly testified is the heart of the 2006 reforms
and something they need if they are to continue to use the Postal
Service. That is why the mailers, the largest customers of the Postal
Service, are such strong supporters of the predictable system that we
put in place in 2006.
Let me turn to another issue. There is so much I could say on all of
these, but I can see a lot of Members have come to the floor.
The Senator's amendment would also eliminate the standards we put
into the bill to protect overnight delivery within certain delivery
areas. We have recently learned that the Postal Service's own
preliminary analysis, submitted confidentially in secret to its
regulators at the PRC, reveals that its service reduction plan to slow
mail delivery and shut down postal plants will lead to more than a 9-
percent decrease in first-class mail and a 7.7-percent reduction in all
classes of mail.
In this preliminary estimate the Postal Service said the first-year
losses alone would be $5.2 billion; that the Postal Service would lose
if we proceed with this plan. Now that those numbers have become
public, the Postal Service is backpeddling and criticizing its own
estimates. But those are the estimates that are in its own survey that
was filed with the PRC.
They don't surprise me because they are consistent with what I am
hearing from major postal customers, and once those customers turn to
other communications options and leave the mail system they will not be
coming back, revenue will plummet, and the Postal Service will be
sucked further into a death spiral.
There are many other comments I could make about the amendment
offered by the Senator from Tennessee. I think his amendment
essentially constitutes a substitute to the bill that is before us in
that it makes so many fundamental changes. I believe it would be
devastating for the Postal Service; that it would cause large and small
mailers to leave the Postal Service, setting off the death spiral from
which the Postal Service might never recover.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.
Mr. CORKER. Mr. President, just 20 seconds, not to rebut anything
that has been said.
I think the Senator from Maine and I have a very different view about
the ways to solve the post office issues. But I just want to thank her
for her tone. I want to thank the Senator from Connecticut, too, for
the way they continue to work together to try to produce legislation in
this body. So I thank them both for being the way they are. They are
two of the Senators I admire most here. I thank them.
I have a very different point of view on this issue, but I thank them
for the way they continually work together to try to solve problems. I
look forward to continuing to work with them on this issue.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.
Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I just want to say briefly, thanks to
my friend from Tennessee not just for his kind words, which mean a lot
to me, but for coming to the floor to discuss his amendment.
There are different points of view about this issue. I think, as I
said very simplistically at the beginning of the debate, some think our
bipartisan committee bill does too little. Some think it does too much.
I think we have hit the right common-ground spot. And I repeat what I
said earlier in the day: There is some due process in this. We don't
allow for what might be called shock therapy for the Postal Service
because we don't think it will work, and we think it would have the net
effect of diminishing the revenues of the Postal Service by cutting
business.
But here is the report we received today from the U.S. Postal Service
itself, just to indicate to my friend from Tennessee and others who may
be following the debate.
This substitute bill of ours, S. 1789, is not just fluff. The Postal
Service itself estimates that over the coming 3 years; that is, by 2016
fiscal year, our bill, if enacted, will enable the Postal Service to
save $19 billion annually. They were hoping for $20 billion, but $19
billion is pretty close. I think we have done it without the
dislocation to the millions of people in our society who depend on the
mail and depend on mailing industries for their jobs, as well as the
hundreds of thousands of people who work for the Postal Service, 18
percent of whom we hope will receive incentives that will be adequate
for them to think about retirement.
But this is a bill that creates a transition that will keep the
Postal Service alive--and we think even healthier--without the kind of
sudden jolts the amendment offered by my friend from Tennessee would
impose.
So I would respectfully oppose the Corker amendment, and I yield the
floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Hawaii.
Honoring Our Armed Forces
Mr. AKAKA. Mr. President, before I discuss my pending amendment to
the Postal Service reform bill, I would like to take a moment to honor
four brave soldiers based out of Schofield Barracks from Hawaii who
died in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan on Thursday. They made the
ultimate sacrifice in service to our country, and we will never forget
them.
My thoughts and prayers, and I know the thoughts and prayers of many
others in Hawaii and others across the United States, are with their
families tonight. We honor and thank them and are so sorry for their
loss.
Mr. President, I rise to discuss my amendment No. 2034 regarding
Federal workers' compensation, which is cosponsored by nine Senators,
including Senators Inouye, Harkin, Murray, Franken, Leahy, Shaheen,
Kerry, Lautenberg, and Brown of Ohio.
I have serious concerns with the provisions of the postal reform bill
that would make changes to the Federal workers' compensation program,
known as FECA, not just within the Postal Service but across the entire
government.
These provisions would cut benefits to elderly disabled employees and
eliminate a supplement for dependents. Many who are already injured
would
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have their benefits cut retroactively. This is particularly unfair
because most employees affected by these far-reaching cuts are not even
Postal Service employees. Many are Defense and State Department
employees injured supporting missions overseas, Federal law enforcement
officers, and firefighters injured saving lives or prison guards
attacked by inmates.
Sponsors of this bill argue that changes to workers compensation must
be included in this legislation to place the Postal Service on a sound
financial footing. However, the fact is that the changes would have
very little effect on the Postal Service's deficit. According to the
Congressional Budget Office, these changes would actually cost the
Postal Service an additional $21 million in the first 3 years.
Any changes to benefits for those injured in service to their country
should be done in a careful, comprehensive manner. There are complex
issues that deserve more analysis before we simply cut benefits people
have planned for and depend on.
At a hearing I held last July witnesses raised serious concerns with
reducing FECA benefits, especially at the retirement age. They
testified that disabled employees may not be able to save enough in
time for a reduction in income because they missed out on wage growth,
Social Security, and the Thrift Savings Plan. Because of this
disadvantage, the Federal Government, like most States, provides
benefits that last as long as the injury, even if that is past the
normal retirement age.
At the request of a bipartisan group of members from the House
Committee on Education and Workforce, the Government Accountability
Office is currently reviewing both pre- and postretirement-age FECA
benefits to determine fair benefit amounts. Acting on this proposal now
without waiting for GAO's analysis is irresponsible. As a result, we
may set benefit levels too low, seriously harming disabled employees,
or too high, taking funding away from other priorities.
We must be extremely cautious not to make arbitrary cuts to benefits
that could have serious detrimental effects on elderly disabled
employees.
Last November, the House passed a Republican-led bipartisan FECA
reform bill, H.R. 2465, by voice vote. The bipartisan sponsors of this
bill chose not to make any changes to benefits without more information
on appropriate benefit levels. I believe their actions were correct,
and the Senate should enact similar legislation by passing my
amendment.
My amendment would strike the government-wide FECA provisions in this
bill and replace them with the House-passed FECA reform bill, which
makes a number of commonsense reforms that will improve program
efficiency and integrity without reducing benefits.
Among other things, my amendment contains program integrity measures
recommended by the inspector general at the Department of Labor, the
Accountability Office, and the administration that will save taxpayers
money.
My amendment would also update benefit levels for funeral costs and
disfigurement that have not been increased since 1949, and it would
protect civilian employees serving in dangerous areas, such as Iraq and
Afghanistan, by giving them more time to file a claim and making sure
injuries from terrorism are covered even if the employee is off duty.
Everyone understands the Postal Service is in the midst of a serious
financial crisis that must be addressed. Chairman Lieberman and Ranking
Member Collins have done a great job in bringing this on. However,
breaking our promises to injured Federal employees to save the Postal
Service just a tiny fraction of its deficit I believe is wrong. I urge
my colleagues to support my amendment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.
Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I have the greatest respect for the
Senator from Hawaii. I know he cares deeply about this issue. But it is
simply time for us to reform the Federal workers' compensation program
for postal workers and for other Federal workers. For this reason, I
oppose his amendment because it does not begin to solve the problems
that have been repeatedly documented in the program by the inspectors
general at the Postal Service, at the Department of Labor, by GAO, and
by the Obama administration, which has called for many of the reforms
we have incorporated into this bill. Senator Akaka's amendment takes on
only very minor reforms which are already included in the bill. It does
not even attempt to constrain the rapidly growing costs of the program,
and it truly does nothing to effectively combat the fraud in the
program.
Let me start with some background to show the growing, the escalating
cost of the Federal workers' compensation system. From 1997 to 2009,
the program's costs grew by an astonishing $1 billion, as this chart
shows. That was a 52-percent increase in program expenditures. It is
one of the reasons why President Obama's administration has submitted
changes to this program over and over. Our bill, according to the CBO,
would reduce the program's outlays for workers' comp by $1.2 billion
over the next 10 years.
I note the Obama administration supports across-the-board reforms,
just as we have put in our bill. It makes no sense to have one system
for postal workers and one system for Federal employees when they all
participate in the same program now. The Postal Service, however, makes
up more than 40 percent of all workers' comp cases for the Government,
and the number of postal employees on the long-term rolls has increased
by 62 percent since 2009. Paying more than $1 billion a year in
workers' comp payments, the Postal Service is the largest program
participant, providing over one-third of the program's budget. These
changes are supported by the leaders at the Postal Service. The
amendment would block desperately needed reforms to a program that has
not been updated in over 35 years.
Let me talk a little bit about the structure of benefits in the
program and why there is a problem. Under the current program, a worker
who has dependents and is out on workers' comp receives a payment at
the rate of 75 percent of his preinjury salary, and these benefits are
tax free. Currently, more than 70 percent of beneficiaries are
receiving compensation at that level.
In addition to that, it is important to understand that 75-percent
tax-free benefit rate is higher than that paid by any comparable State
workers' compensation system and, given our current Tax Code, 75
percent of salary tax free is equivalent, for most people, to a full
salary after taxes.
We do want to make sure we have a workers' comp program that takes
care of our injured workers that is compassionate, that helps them
recover and return to work. But the current program of the Federal
Government does not accomplish those roles.
First of all, it does not encourage injured workers to get the help
they need to recover and to return to work, as these statistics will
demonstrate. Right now, the program, across the board, Federal and
postal workers, has 10,000 beneficiaries age 70 or older, 2,000 of whom
are postal employees. They are receiving higher payments on workers'
comp than they would under the standard retirement program. That is
almost one-quarter of all beneficiaries in the program who are over age
70. Of the beneficiaries, 430 of them are over age 90, and 6 of the
workers' comp beneficiaries are age 100 or older. These employees are
not going back to work. If they were still working, it would be a
miracle. They would be retired. It is not fair to postal and Federal
employees who work their entire lives, retire at age 60 or 65, and
receive a retirement benefit that is 26 percent lower than the median
benefit received by workers' compensation recipients. That is unfair.
That means people who remain on workers' comp make more money than if
they had continued working and much more than they would make in the
retirement systems for Federal and postal workers.
I wish to make sure that as we reform the system, we are fair. One of
the major reforms is to move people at age 65 from workers' comp to the
normal retirement system, but we have exempted from these reforms those
who are least able to prepare for it, those who are totally disabled
and unable to return to work, and those who are age 65 and over. I
think that is a very fair approach.
Another protection we have included for those current claimants who
would
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be affected by the reforms in the bill is a 3-year waiting period. If a
claimant is not already grandfathered and therefore is not disabled and
unable to return to work, then that individual would experience no
reduction in benefits for 3 years, regardless of that individual's age.
Again, the reforms we have included in our bill closely track the
reforms proposed by President Obama's administration.
Finally, let me just say this program has proven to be highly
vulnerable to fraud. GAO reported as recently as November that the
vulnerabilities in the program increase the risk of claimants receiving
benefits they are not entitled to. There are many reasons for that. I
will go into that further at another time. But the Department of Labor
inspector general reported that the removal of a single fraudulent
claim saves, on average, between $300,000 and $500,000. What is more,
these vulnerabilities are not new and they are not rare. When the IG
looked at 10,000 claimant files one decade ago, there were
irregularities in almost 75 percent of them, and it resulted in
benefits being reduced or ended for more than 50 claimants.
This is a troubled program. It needs to be reformed. It needs to be
made more fair. It needs to be more fair to individual workers. There
needs to be more of a focus on return to work, and it needs to be more
fair to workers who spend their entire careers working for the Postal
Service or the Federal Government and then retire and receive a far
lower benefit than an elderly individual who remains on workers' comp.
I urge the defeat of the amendment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Hawaii.
Mr. AKAKA. Mr. President, I would like to address a number of
statements my good friend Senator Collins has made about the FECA
provisions in this bill.
First, it has been argued these changes are necessary to save the
Postal Service money. However, since most employees affected by these
cuts are not postal employees, the savings expected from these changes
would have very little effect on the Postal Service's deficit. In fact,
according to CBO, these changes would actually cost the Postal Service
an additional $21 million in the first 3 years.
In addition, it has been said on the floor that the FECA recipients
over retirement age get 26 percent more income than similar employees
who work their entire career and retire under the normal retirement
systems. This statistic comes from a recent GAO report that looked at
only a small sample of nonpostal workers, eligible for CSCS retirement.
In fact, according to GAO, their recent report only examines 8
percent of the active Federal workforce and does not even look at the
Postal Service workers. Cuts should not be made to FECA benefits until
GAO completes a more comprehensive study, now underway, which examines
the impact of benefit reductions on FERS participants. The Senate has
not considered FECA legislation since 2006, and the only hearing was
the one I held last year.
The Federal workers' comp program, similar to most State programs,
allows injured workers to continue receiving compensation as long as
the injury lasts, even if that is past normal retirement age. This is
necessary because disabled workers on FECA do not earn Social Security
credit and cannot participate in the Thrift Savings Plan, and they miss
out on normal wage growth. We must make them whole for their injuries
by making up for lost wages and their inability to save for
retirement. It is simply not the case that workers of retirement age
who still receive FECA benefits are somehow scamming the system.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is notified the Senate is under a
previous order to move to executive session at 5 p.m.
Does the Senator seek more time to conclude his remarks?
Mr. AKAKA. Mr. President, I will wrap up.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. AKAKA. In fact, in 1974, Congress repealed an earlier statute to
allow a reduction at age 70. Congress cited concerns about the hardship
the reductions caused on senior citizens as well as concerns about age
discrimination when repealing the past less severe version of this
legislation. No matter a person's age, they have every right to that
benefit.
I agree that we should be taking a closer look at ways to prevent
fraud and abuse in this program, but reducing benefits for people at
retirement age has nothing to do with reducing fraud. My amendment
allows the Department of Labor to obtain wage data from the Social
Security Administration--this will help prevent fraud.
It has been argued that these cuts bring the FECA program more in
line with the state programs. However, most state programs have no
benefit reductions for recipients at retirement age. In fact, 33 state
programs do not reduce benefits at any age. At our subcommittee hearing
last July, the minority requested witness stated that these states seem
to have no interest in cutting benefits for senior citizens.
Finally, proponents of these cuts have emphasized repeatedly that
these provisions are very similar to an Obama administration proposal.
This was actually a Bush administration proposal that the Obama
administration simply kept in place. More importantly, this bill cuts
benefits more deeply than that proposal, and most concerning--unlike
the administration proposal--this bill would apply reductions
retroactively to many employees who already have been injured.
Moreover, the Department of Labor has admitted that the changes to
benefit amounts in the their proposal were round numbers based on rough
calculations--I believe that is hardly the basis to determine what
elderly disabled people will have to live on for the rest of their
lives.
We simply do not have the information we need to decide on fair
benefit levels and should wait for the more extensive GAO study now
underway. Breaking our promises to injured federal employees to save
the Postal Service a tiny fraction of its deficit is not the solution.
My amendment 2034 offers a reasonable alternative by replacing the FECA
provisions in this bill with the bipartisan FECA reform bill that
passed the House by voice vote last year. The House chose not to make
benefit cuts without the additional information they sought from GAO,
and we should follow their lead.
This amendment would make commonsense reforms that will improve
program efficiency and integrity without reducing benefits and I urge
my colleagues to support it.
I wish to say the chairman of our committee, Joe Lieberman, and the
ranking member have worked hard at this, and my whole effort is to deal
with many of the workers of the Federal Government who are not in the
Postal Service as well. I ask that my amendment be considered.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.
Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent for just three
moments to speak on this amendment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I wish to thank Senator Akaka for
coming to the floor and speaking on behalf of his amendment. He is one
of the most hard-working, constructive members of our committee, the
committee from which the underlying bill has come. He is one of the
finest people I have ever met. I have the greatest admiration and
affection for him.
So unlike Senator Collins, it is with some reluctance that I must say
I oppose this amendment. I will speak very briefly since Senator
Collins has spoken well on it.
I think the current system goes beyond taking care of those who need
workers' compensation, and it has come to a point where it is unfair
not just to those who are paying for the system but to others who are
working in the Postal Service today.
I thank Senator Collins. She has worked very hard and very
thoughtfully. The proposal she made turned out to be so balanced and
constructive that folks in the Obama administration who had been
working on a similar proposal for all Federal employees asked that we
extend the workers' compensation reforms in the Postal Service bill to
all Federal employees. Dare I call this a Collins-Obama proposal? I
don't know. I just raised that prospect.
In any case, I support the underlying bill in this regard and very
respectfully
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and affectionately oppose the Akaka amendment.
I yield the floor, and I thank the Chair.
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