Congress Trying Again on Postal Reform

A Senate panel is trying again to move forward with proposed reforms of the Postal Service, an effort that was called off several times last year. The plan before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee—already revised from its original version and subject to further amendment—would stretch out over more years the requirement to pre-fund retiree health insurance, an obligation that has contributed substantially to USPS’s financial problems, although a new funding obligation would be imposed for injury compensation costs. The bill would carve out a separate postal health insurance plan within the FEHB and similar to it, with unknown consequences for postal employees and the rest of the FEHB population; the original idea was to split off into an entirely separate plan. It further would: allow bargaining over ending the FERS defined benefit for postal employees hired in the future, potentially replacing it with a higher employer contribution toward the TSP; require Medicare-eligible postal retirees to enroll in that program, effectively shifting more of their costs to it; and allow revisions to many business practices, although with provisions designed to protect jobs, at least for a time. Six-day delivery of mail would have to continue unless mail volume fell below certain levels for at least a year, and new standards would be set regarding closings of post offices and processing facilities; USPS recently announced an indefinite delay in a round of facilities closings originally scheduled to begin next month.