Postal Reform May Get another Try

Congress also may try during the upcoming weeks to make progress on long-stalled postal reform legislation. Senate and House civil service leaders say they are committed to reform, with the House side floating an outline that softens some of the more controversial provisions that prevented a House floor vote last year while the Senate passed its own version of postal reform. One of those dropped provisions would have allowed USPS to break off from FEHB and create its own health plan, with unknown effects on both its own employees and retirees and also the rest of the FEHB population. However, the plan would require USPS to reduce by 2020 the share it pays toward FEHB to the same level that other agencies pay; the same change would apply to the higher share USPS currently pays toward FEGLI. One spur to action could be the continuing warnings from USPS about the grim state of its finances and the virtual certainty that it will once again default on an annual payment of some $5 billion to the Treasury, due in September, to prefund retiree health benefits. However, postal reform remains controversial, particularly regarding potential downsizing of the workforce due to post office and processing facility closings and dropping Saturday delivery of mail.