Just three years after passage of a major postal reform law, Congress may need to revisit some of the philosophies underlying that law and some of the provisions it imposed, according to a Congressional Research Service analysis.
CRS was examining the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, in view of the severe downtown in the service’s finances that started just about the time the law was enacted. The USPS lost $5.3 billion in fiscal 2007, $2.8 billion in 2008, and $3.8 billion in 2009—a number that would have been $7.8 billion had Congress not granted some relief from a requirement imposed by the law to pre-fund retiree health benefits.
It added, though, that the relief, passed last September, merely shifted that $4 billion obligation into the future and did not eliminate it. Under the law, USPS is obliged to make nearly $40 billion in payments through 2016, and both USPS management and outside bodies have suggested that the schedule is “too aggressive” and should be reduced to between $1.6 billion and $3.4 billion a year, CRS said.
The law’s provisions also have complicated postal service efforts to deal with its financial crisis by closing facilities and by entering into new lines of business, CRS added.
