The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has released a Web video, “Postal Crisis 101: The Postal Bailout,”demonstrating the way that a taxpayer funded bailout would continue the United States Postal Services' deficit budget by flooding the accounting books with false "overpayment."
The videos' timely release helps gain momentum going into a review of the The Issa-McCain-Ross Postal Reform Act of 2011, which will be in front of the Oversight Committee on Thursday at 10:30 AM. The video maps out the route of the bailout, from the treasury to the postal service and into the retirees' pension plans, demonstrating that a multi-billion dollar bailout would do nothing to cut future budgets or increase efficiency of the Postal Service, just merely delay the potential end of the USPS.
Along with preventing another billion dollar taxpayer bailout, the Postal Service Reform Act is a multifaceted plan, cutting costs by increasing efficiency, accountability, and responsibility to workers and customers.
Financial problems for USPS started when mail processing dropped 46 billion pieces in volume since its peak in 2006 due to the increase of electronic communication and online bill payment methods. The Commission on Postal Reorganization, established through the Reform Act, would be charged with the responsibility to locate where the Postal Service can make up for the loss of these profits by cutting costs through shutting down excessive branches and creating more efficient mail processing.
There would also be an established "watchdog" to crack down on post offices that fall behind in payments, including "addressing expensive labor agreements." The presence of the American Postal Workers Union has thrown a wrench into the reform process in the past, but the act looks to create equality between USPS workers and federal workers, requiring workers to pay the same for health and life insurance as other federal workers.
The House Oversight Committee has an interactive website Save the Postal Service, which features facts and news about the Reform Act, and a live feed of the business meeting of the Oversight Committee will be available for streaming tomorrow during the review.
Blog Post by Emily Moore
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