We have recently learned that the Postal Service is moving forward with cutting hours at post offices, offering retirement incentives for some postal workers, and beginning the process of closing select mail processing centers across the country. Rather than forcing the Postal Service to continue to rely on these sorts of piecemeal, stopgap measures to cut costs, Congress must work to enact comprehensive reform that provides the tools and resources the Postal Service needs to survive in the 21st Century. The Senate has done this. The ball is in the House’s court. Although the Postal Reform Act of 2011 was passed out of the relevant House committee in October 2011, leaders in the House of Representatives have yet to schedule a vote on the bill. The Senate, however, passed a bipartisan postal reform bill, the 21st Century Postal Service Act, on April 25, 2012.

With each day that the House fails to take action, the Postal Service loses $25 million. Further delays could accelerate an already deteriorating financial situation at the Postal Service that would threaten a mailing industry that employs over 8 million people and generates nearly $1 trillion in economic activity each year. Make no mistake, the Postal Service’s financial problems are dire, but they are solvable if Congress acts to pass comprehensive postal reform legislation.

The Postal Service's Losses, By the Numbers

$6,500,000,000  Total FY 2012 Postal Service Losses So Far
$500,000,000  What New USPS Cost-Cutting Plan for Post Offices Saves in 1 Year
$25,000,000  What the Postal Service Loses Each Day
20 Days  How Long it Currently Takes USPS to lose $500,000,000 – the same amount of savings announced in new USPS plan

$13,000,000,000+  Current Postal Service Debt to U.S. Treasury

80 Days  Until USPS has to pay $11.1 billion for future retiree healthcare costs (as of 7/20) 
86 Days   Since the Senate Passed Comprehensive Postal Reform Legislation (as of 7/20)
282 Days  Since the House Reported Its Postal Reform Bill Out of Committee (as of 7/20)
??? Days  Until the House Takes Action on Postal Reform Legislation

WHEN WILL THE HOUSE TAKE ACTION?

What They're Saying: 
Losses Mount while the House Fails to Act

MSNBC's Chris Jansing (5/16): “The U.S. Postal Service admits it’s hemorrhaging money, losing a staggering $25 million a day … The agency has called for legislative change to stop the bleeding, and the Senate passed a bipartisan postal reform bill at the end of April. But the House has still to act.” LINK

National Journal (5/14): "Sponsors of the Senate bill, which passed 62-37, had clamored for House action before the May 15 expiration that USPS had agreed upon for a voluntary moratorium on the closure of postal facilities. Without enactment of an overhaul bill, the self-supporting agency, which announced a $3.2 billion loss last quarter, has said it will default this fall on payments it owes… Buck referred questions about the timing of House action to the office of Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., which declined to comment. An Issa spokesman has repeatedly refused to comment on the timing for postal legislation in the House." LINK

Associated Press (5/11): “The Postal Service said that without legislative action, it would be forced to default on more than $11 billion in health prepayments due to the Treasury this fall … The Senate last month passed a bill that would give the agency an $11 billion cash infusion and reduce the health payments while delaying a move to five-day delivery for two years; the House remains stalled over a separate bill allowing for far-reaching cuts.” LINK

Reuters (5/10): “The Postal Service said its loss widened to $3.2 billion in the first three months of 2012 and repeated on Thursday its warning that it will likely default on payments to the federal government unless Congress passes legislation offering some relief … The Senate passed bipartisan legislation last month … The House of Representatives has yet to schedule a vote on postal legislation.” LINK

Wall Street Journal (5/10): “The [Postal Service] on Thursday continued to call for legislative change, saying its losses will continue until there is progress on key provisions of its five-year business plan … For the period ended March 31, the Postal Service posted a net loss of $3.18 billion, compared with a year-earlier loss of $2.23 billion.” LINK

New York Times (5/1): “The Senate passed a bill to overhaul the Postal Service last week. But legislation has yet to come up for a vote in the House, and lawmakers there do not appear to be in a hurry to proceed.” LINK

New York Times (4/26): “[The Senate] passed legislation that would overhaul the financially ailing Postal Service … [A] spokesman for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Postal Service, said the committee had not set a time to begin working on the bill.” LINK

Wall Street Journal (4/25): “The Senate approved a bill that would avert closings of post offices and distribution centers for two years and continue Saturday mail delivery … But a congressional rescue of the 237-year-old service remains in doubt as another bill languishes in the House.” LINK

Washington Post (5/1): “Despite months of preparation and last week’s passage of the Senate bill, House Republican leaders and the legislation’s primary co-sponsors have been mum on when or if the House will vote on a Republican-backed bill or take up the Senate proposal.” LINK

CNN (4/25): “In an unusual showing of bipartisanship, the Senate voted 62-37 to throw a lifeline to the indebted Postal Service … The House has yet to take up a different bill to reform the Postal Service.”LINK

Reuters (5/4): “A bipartisan group of lawmakers is trying to drum up support in the House of Representatives to vote on a Senate-passed bill that would make it tougher for the Postal Service to close some facilities … House leaders have not scheduled a vote on postal legislation, and a bill from Republican Darrell Issa that passed his Oversight Committee more than six months ago is significantly different from the Senate version.” LINK

ABC News (4/25): “The Senate voted today to approve the Postal Reform Act, sending a bill to the House of Representatives.” LINK

Politico (5/1): “Democratic and Republican lawmakers who guided the postal reform bill through the Senate last week are calling on House leaders to “act promptly” to pass their legislation so the two bills can be reconciled.” LINK

Roll Call (5/1): “A bipartisan group of four Senators is hoping to pressure House Republicans to pass U.S. Postal Service reform legislation … The Senate passed a measure before the recess that would allow for the orderly closure of postal facilities and slowly scale back service, as well as reduce the Postal Service workforce. But the House has yet to move a companion measure.” LINK

The Hill (5/1): “[W]hile the Senate has passed its legislation, the House has yet to schedule floor time for its Republican-sponsored measure … The four sponsors of that measure have also pressed the House to move forward with its own legislation so the two chambers can move forward with a conference … Donahoe has urged lawmakers to finish their work by the end of the month and said that taking the best parts of each chamber’s bill would solidify the service’s finances.” LINK

Bloomberg (5/3): “[T]he Senate bill passed last week to reform the U.S. Postal Service is … facing attack from all sides. The ambush -- led by House Republicans, postal-worker unions and the service itself -- seems overly aggressive: The bill is Congress’s first earnest attempt to stop the impending meltdown of the Postal Service, which loses $25 million a day … Give the Senate credit for setting things in motion.” LINK

The Bangor Daily News, Bangor, Maine (5/11): "Postmaster General Pat Donahoe announced that rural post offices nationwide scheduled for closure last year — including 30 in Maine — will remain open ... But the announcement should not take the pressure off the U.S. House to act on its postal reform bill. After losing more than $13 billion during the past two years, the postal service is scheduled to max out its statutory credit limit of $15 billion by the end of this year. Another scary thought: The agency says it’s at risk of not being able to pay all its employees as early as this fall." LINK

The News Journal, Wilmington, Del. (4/27): “[T]he Senate passed a forward-looking bill that could rescue the mail system from disaster. However, the disaster hasn’t been averted yet. The action now moves to the U.S. House of Representatives, which has its own bill … The Postal Service loses $25 million a day while this difference between the House and the Senate goes on.” LINK

Sen. Carper on the Issue