The Hill News

Last week, our Senate failed this nation when it passed the “21st Century Postal Reform Act.” Demonstrating once again that it is incapable of making the decisions necessary to fulfill its Constitutional obligation of providing our nation with a sustainable, universal postal system, Congress has instead settled on short-term solutions for a problem that will only be made worse as time goes on.
 
Although no one realized it at the time, since the very first e-mail was transmitted, the United States Postal Service has been headed for trouble. The explosion of digital technology has only compounded the self-funding agency’s woes; e-mail, e-payments and e-billing have all participated in the rapidly declining rate of First Class Mail. And now, the United States Postal Service, which as recently as six years ago was a thriving and profitable government entity, is on the verge of collapse under staggering operational over-capacity and a rigid congressional stru! cture that won’t allow for the radical change it so desperately needs.
 
The bill, which passed 62-37, will repay the USPS $11 billion in overpaid retirement funds, caps top executive salaries at $199,000 and keeps  thousands of post offices and processing plants open past May 15, the date when the USPS had planned to shut them down in an effort to contain costs.

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