e-Team Report, Oct. 4, 2013

House Republicans Shut Down Federal Government

Tuesday, Oct. 1, marked the first day that Americans could sign up for health insurance that was made available through the Affordable Care Act, a key legislative achievement of President Obama’s first term.  It also marked the first day of the first federal government shutdown in 17 years.  These two events were not unrelated.

House Republicans refused to pass a bill to fund the government unless it included provisions to delay, defund, or dismantle the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.  As a result of the refusal by House Republicans to fund the government, more than 800,000 federal employees are now furloughed, national parks are shuttered, and a host of government-supported programs, including Head Start, Meals on Wheels, SNAP and WIC Food and Nutrition Services, and seasonal flu monitoring are now in jeopardy.  The longer the shutdown continues, the more the U.S. economy will suffer, economists say.  

For the time being, the government remains shut down and most House Republicans remain unwilling to fund the government unless the budget includes provisions to delay implementation of the Affordable Care Act.  However, a growing number of House Republicans are voicing their willingness to put aside a partisan agenda and support a “clean” bill that funds the government without delaying President Obama’s health-care law.

To read more about House Republicans interested in getting the government back to work, please click here.

To read more about the effects of the federal shutdown, please click here.

Unions and Lawmakers Fight for Federal Worker Back-Pay

House Democrats and federal employee unions joined at the Capitol Building to call for an end to the shutdown and to demand retroactive pay for the 800,000 federal workers who are now furloughed.

Back-pay legislation has been introduced in the House (H.R. 3223) and Senate (S. 1567).  Currently, the House bill has 152 co-sponsors (122 Democrats; 30 Republicans) and the Senate bill has 20 co-sponsors (19 Democrats; 1 Republican).  Some GOP lawmakers think the men and women of the federal workforce should be penalized for the dysfunction in Congress.  Referring to back-pay for furloughed federal workers, Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) stated, “I think it’s way too early to even consider that, but again, we’re $7 trillion more in the hole now than we were [during the shutdowns in fiscal 1996].”  Asking 800,000 federal workers with families to support and bills to pay for the tantrums of some lawmakers is simply unfair!

For more on the House and Senate bills that would grant back-pay to furloughed workers, please click here.

NY Newspaper Complains of Slowed Mail, Decries PD&C Closure

The River Reporter recently apologized to subscribers who received their Thursday paper on Saturday and in some instances as late as Monday.  As described in the River Reporter’s editorial, the newspapers “were dropped off at Newburgh [sorting facility] before noon Wednesday where they were verified for their appropriate postage.  After that the papers sat, waiting to be trucked to Albany in the evening to be processed before being trucked back to Newburgh and then sent on to local post offices in the Upper Delaware River Valley.”  The paper attributed the delay to the closure of a local mail processing and distribution facility.  

“Frankly, we think this situation is intolerable,” the editorial said.

The delays the River Reporter and its subscribers experienced demonstrate how the Postal Service’s strategy of cutting its way out of its financial crisis shortchanges customers.  In many cases where mail processing facilities have been closed due to network consolidation, mail must be transported from stations, branches and Associate Offices in the vicinity of a closed facility to a more-distant mail processing facility.  The additional transportation time, along with earlier critical entry times (CET) and other factors are resulting in delays for customers from 1-4 days!  

The APWU has spoken out strongly against closures and consolidations of mail processing facilities and post offices, as well as the degradation of service leading to excessively delayed mail.   On Sept. 5 the APWU filed a complaint with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) charging that the USPS is failing to comply with its own service standards and is depriving individuals, small businesses and organizations of the service they are entitled to by law. 

To read the River Reporter’s editorial on delayed mail to their subscribers, please click here.

Default is the Wrong Headline!

As expected, for the third year in a row, the Postal Service defaulted on a $5.6 billion retiree health benefits pre-funding payment that was due on Sept. 30. The pre-funding mandate, which was a feature of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006, is the primary cause of the USPS financial crisis. According to a report by the Government Accountability Office, to date the Postal Service has made $17.9 billion in required pre-fund payments and has defaulted on $16.7 billion. 

While some in Congress are acutely aware of the urgent need to pass a postal reform bill, lawmakers have been unable or unwilling to agree on a plan to end the Postal Service’s manufactured financial crisis. Legislation pending in both the House and the Senate (H.R. 2748 and S. 1486) fails to adequately address the pre-funding requirement. Instead, the bills would cut service and curtail the rights and benefits of postal employees.   

"The headline should be that Congress hasn't fixed this yet," said Sally Davidow, spokeswoman for the American Postal Workers Union. "The (prefunding) requirement is what's driving the Postal Service into bankruptcy. Get rid of it."

To read more, please click here.