Save America's Postal Service

PLEASE READ ALL: Members of all 4 Postal Unions rallied around the country at Congressional District offices to encourage adoption of H.R. 1351, a bill to fix the $20 billion in postal losses you've heard about that stem from a 2006 congressional mandate that the Postal Service pre-fund future retiree health benefits for the next 75 years and do so within a decade—a burden no other public agency or private firm faces.

Despite what you may have heard, the Postal Service isn't broke. Nor is it losing billions of dollars a year delivering the mail. And a taxpayer bailout isn't imminent. Reduced services are being presented as a foregone conclusion, but they're not.

The Postal Service isn't funded by taxpayers. All its revenue is earned from the sale of its products and services, meaning that the dire warnings of a taxpayer bailout are completely unfounded. The Postal Service hasn't used a dime of taxpayer money in 30 years.

The Postal Service made a net profit of more than $600 million sorting and delivering the mail the past four fiscal years. You read that correctly. Despite the worst recession in 80 years, despite competition from the Internet, despite everything you've heard, postal operating revenues exceeded costs by $611 million in the four fiscal years since 2007.

The Postal Service is actually paying, out of its operating budget, for the future retiree benefits of people who haven't been born yet. That cost— $21 billion since 2007—accounts for 100 percent of the agency's red ink over that period. House Bill 1351, which has bipartisan support and over 200 co-sponsors, would address the pre-funding issue.

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News & Politics

Tags:

• NALC
• APWU
• National Postal Mailhandlers
• Rural Letter Carriers
• Postal Workers
• Labor
• Solidarity
• H.R. 1351
• Rally
• Mail Carrier
• Letter
• Post Office