[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 1]
[House]
[Pages 1332-1333]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    PRESERVING 6-DAY POSTAL SERVICE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Virginia (Mr. Connolly) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CONNOLLY. Mr. Speaker, the Postmaster General's announcement this 
past week that he intends to eliminate Saturday mail delivery is of 
great concern to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle.
  Beyond the fact that such a move completely disregards congressional 
intent, it also sets the Postal Service on a downward spiral that will 
undercut any opportunity to revitalize it and put it in a more sound 
financial footing for future generations. Whether it's the financial 
documents for a small business, a prescription refill for an elderly 
resident, or a birthday card for a loved one, Saturday mail delivery is 
important to every person in every community in America.
  The United States Postal Service is an American institution dating 
back to the founding of our Nation when it was enshrined in article I 
of the Constitution, and Saturday delivery has been part of that 
tradition for the past 150 years. The men and women who don the blue 
uniform of the USPS are visible in every street in every community.

                              {time}  1030

  As a recent Washington Post story recounted, mail carriers have been 
known to report crimes, detect gas leaks and check on the elderly. Many 
serve the same routes for years, taking note of the comings and goings 
in their neighborhoods and offering an extra set of watchful eyes. They 
are, in many ways, the first responders in many of these communities.
  Eliminating Saturday mail service would result in the layoffs of more 
than 50,000 letter carriers. Job losses in the public sector have 
already been a drag on our economy for the past 2 years, and this only 
exacerbates that problem. The supposed savings would clearly be offset 
if these unemployed middle class workers would then need Federal 
assistance to make ends meet.
  Upon closer inspection, the economic case for eliminating Saturday 
delivery is specious at best. The Postmaster General claims it will 
save $2 billion, but that does not include the lost revenue or the 
broader economic ripple effect. A confidential report commissioned by 
the Postmaster General just last year showed that a 7.7 percent decline 
in mail volume, such as going from 6 to 5 days would trigger, would 
actually result in a $5.2 billion loss in revenue. It's little wonder 
that he deep-sixed his own study.
  Within the broader economy, 8.4 million jobs are supported by the 
private and public mailing industries. That represents 6 percent of all 
American jobs. For every job in the Postal Service, there are 10 in the 
private sector, and three out of four of those jobs are dependent on 
existing delivery infrastructure by the Postal Service, including 6-day 
mail. Last year, the combined industries supported $1.3 trillion in 
sales revenue, or 8.6 percent of our entire economy.
  While first-class mail volume has been trending downward for the past 
decade, the Postal Service is not maximizing those lines of business 
that are showing growth, such as package delivery. Growth in online 
retail sales, spurred by Cyber Monday, for example, pushed USPS package 
delivery revenue up by 4.7 percent, or $154 million, in the first 
quarter of this year alone. The Postal Service has not been able to 
capitalize on those opportunities largely because Congress, itself, 
stifled innovation with the 2006 legislation that it passed. Unlike its 
international counterparts, the Postal Service is prohibited by law 
from co-locating with such comparable businesses as banks and coffee 
shops, which actually offer a lot of revenue in the European postal 
services. We even restrict how the Postal Service can competitively 
market its low-priced services.
  Of course, the most egregious burden imposed on the Postal Service by 
Congress is the outrageous pre-funding requirement for future retiree 
health benefits. Under current law, it must pre-fund 75 years at 100 
percent of those benefits in a 10-year window. No other entity on the 
planet has such an onerous requirement but the Postal Service, and we 
did it--Congress did it--in 2006. In fact, $11.1 billion of the $15 
billion-plus loss last year for the Postal Service is directly 
attributable to that burden.
  That brings us back to the audacity of last week's announcement by 
the Postmaster General. The Postal Service has routinely testified 
before Congress, requesting the authority to go from six to five, but 
congressional intent on the preservation of 6-day mail delivery has 
been clear for 30 years. Even the Presidential budget request 
recognizes the need for Congress proactively to grant such authority. 
It cannot be grabbed unilaterally. The Postmaster General acknowledged 
he was on shaky ground--and indeed he is--in making this announcement. 
I, along with Representative Graves, have asked him to provide what, if 
any, legal justification he relied on to make this momentous decision, 
and we've asked the Attorney General and the Postal Regulatory 
Commission for their opinions on the Postmaster General's statutory 
authority for this ill-advised action.
  Mr. Speaker, Representative Graves and I have introduced a bipartisan 
resolution urging the Postal Service to preserve 6-day delivery. We 
would welcome our colleagues in joining us to highlight congressional 
intent that Saturday service is vital to our neighborhoods and small 
businesses and to the vitality of our communities. I urge my colleagues 
to take a closer look.

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