Office of Personnel Management Deputy Director Dan G.
Blair testified before the Senate Committee on
Governmental Affairs opposing further relief — $27
billion of it — for the U.S. Postal Service in paying
retirement costs associated with employee military service.
The Postal Civil Service Retirement System Funding Reform
Act of 2003 grants the Postal Service $78 billion in pension
fund relief and full funding of postal Civil Service
Retirement System costs, said Blair, who argued that the
right governmental response to agency under-funding is to
require agencies to pay the full cost of CSRS.
In commenting on a recommendation to transfer pension
liabilities elsewhere — part of a broader package of
recommendations on postal reform developed under President
Clinton — Blair pointed out that a CSRS bailout would
likely lead to a FERS bailout in the future and argued
that making an exception for the Postal Service in the
case of pension obligations is a move in the wrong direction.
