The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee was unable to schedule a vote on a sweeping postal reform bill that many consider essential to providing enough flexibility for the USPS to operate more like a business – thoughexactly how to go about doing so remains contentious.
Key differences remain over whether USPS should be allowed more freedom to set prices and rates and how that could impact the mailing industry, whether to move to a five-day delivery schedule and whether to end a commitment to universal door-to-door delivery.
One priority for USPS has been to remove the requirement that it make a $5.6 billion annual payment to prefund retiree health benefits (it has defaulted on the last three).
“We’ve achieved some excellent results for the year in terms of innovations, revenue gains and cost reductions, but without major legislative changes we cannot overcome the limitations of our inflexible business model,” said postmaster general Patrick Donahoe in announcing the fiscal 2013 loss.
USPS supports provisions in the 2013 Postal Reform Act that would restructure its health care plan, shift to a six-day package / five-day mail delivery model, streamline governance, allow it to expand product offerings, reform workers compensation, and require arbitrators to factor in the USPS’s financial condition when deciding cases.
Sens. Tom Carper, D-Del., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla., are reportedly crafting new language to address issues that pushed back a vote on postal reform.
