e-Team Report, Sept. 27, 2013

Robbing Peter to Pay Paul?

A second hearing on S. 1486, the postal bill sponsored by Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), was held on Sept. 26 before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Testifying at the hearing, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe continued to insist that any new postal legislation must include a requirement that all eligible retirees enroll in Medicare. Donahoe’s proposal prompted concern that such a plan would simply shift costs rather than save money.

Testimony also was provided on major sticking points of the bill, including the Postal Service's proposal to remove employees from the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP); how to handle surpluses in the Postal Service’s pension accounts, and the unfair burden of pre-funding retirees’ health benefits.

To read more, please click here.

To view a video of the entire hearing, please click here.

PMG Tells Senate Committee, ‘No More Closures’ … Then Clarifies

At the first hearing on S.1486, Postmaster General Donahoe maneuvered around questions about whether the USPS would close post offices or mail processing facilities while the bill was pending – leading  senators and the media to believe he had made a commitment to keep all facilities open. 

Yesterday, however, the PMG ‘clarified’ last week’s statement after questioning from Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT).  The questioning on post office and facility closures begins at the 1 hour and 40 minute mark of the hearing video.  

To view the video, please click here.

To read the PMG’s statement on ‘no closures’ last week, please click here.

Without Pre-Funding…

With less than a month left in the fiscal year, based on the Postal Service’s newly released financial report, 2013 is showing signs of a financial turnaround.

While First Class mail volume continues to drop, Standard mail continues to increase, and package services show increased volume and revenues. 

Without the congressionally required Retiree Health Benefit Fund (RHBF) prepayment, the Postal Service would be showing a net operating profit of $182 million for the year so far, 2 percent better than expected.

To read more about the bottom line, please click here.

USPS Board of Governors Proposes Rate Increase

The Postal Service’s Board of Governors has released a plan to increase postage rates above the rate of inflation.  The plan would raise the price of first-class stamps by 3 cents in January 2014, up to 49 cents apiece. Standard mail, periodicals, and other mail would also see their rates adjusted.  The Postal Service projects this move will raise $2 billion annually.  Before it can take effect, however, this proposal must be approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC), which in 2010 rejected a similar rate adjustment proposal.

To read more about the proposed rate increase, please click here.

A Looming Government Shutdown and Crisis Politics

Congress has brought the government to the brink of shutdown… again.

This time, House Republicans are dead-set on using the budget crisis to defund the Affordable Care Act. “Obamacare,” as the law is commonly known, was the signature accomplishment of the president’s first term; it was hotly debated during the 2012 election, and helped carry the president to re-election.

Rather than move forward and constructively address legitimate concerns some have with the ACA, several members of Congress have grown even more extreme in their efforts to shrink government – so extreme they are risking a government shutdown.

If Congress cannot come to a compromise by midnight on Monday, September 30, a government shutdown could stop many government services and interrupt the pay of more than 800,000 federal workers.  The Office Management and Budget (OMB) has already warned agencies to make contingency plans.

While the U.S. Postal Service would continue operations during a shutdown because it is independently funded, postal workers and postal retirees, like all other Americans, may be negatively impacted by a shutdown through slowed or stopped services.   For other federal workers, the fear of delayed paychecks or furloughs looms. 

Postal workers have witnessed this kind of “governing by crisis.”  This same kind of obsession by some members of Congress to defund government has brought the USPS to the brink of financial collapse.

This kind of reckless obstructionism distracts lawmakers from passing legislation on other critically important issues and shirks responsible lawmaking and leadership.   It is up to the public to hold their members of Congress responsible!

See how your Representative voted!  To view the final House voting record results for H J Res 59 (Fiscal 2014 Continuing Appropriations) please click here.

Federal Pensions At Risk – Again

Congressional Republicans are using  the manufactured crises of a government shutdown and a federal default to try to score political victories and again attack the federal workforce.

House Republicans have released a list of demands that they say must be met before they will agree to raise the debt ceiling and avert economic catastrophe.  These demands amount to a laundry list of conservative priorities, such as defunding or delaying Obamacare, undoing environmental protections, constructing the Keystone pipeline, overhauling the tax code, dismantling parts of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law – and requiring already beleaguered federal workers to contribute more of their paycheck to their pensions.

For federal workers who are also struggling with the possibility of a government shutdown, this move would amount to yet another pay cut. The president of the American Federation of Government Employees, J. David Cox Sr., has a message for anyone attempting to balance a budget on the back of hardworking federal employees: “After three years of frozen pay, unpaid furloughs, huge increases in retirement costs for new employees, and the threat of massive layoffs at the Defense Department and elsewhere, Congress and the administration need to keep their hands off of federal employees once and for all.”

To read more about this latest attack on federal workers, please click here.