PATRICK DONAHOE: "As a self-financing entity that depends on the sale of postage for its revenues, the Postal Service requires the ability to operate more as a business does."
The Postal Service is responsible for its own financing and not part of the federal budget. But it does take part in federal retirement and health plans. It says it has paid too much to federal retirement plans and wants at least seven billion dollars returned.
Mister Donahoe also wants to pull the Postal Service out of the federal benefit plans. He says the service's proposals could cut twenty billion dollars by twenty fifteen and return it to profitability.
John Berry is director of the federal Office of Personnel Management which supervises federal retirement and health plans. He said the Obama administration would soon announce its own plan.
At the hearing, Senator Susan Collins criticized the administration for not having a plan already. Leaders of two labor unions representing postal workers have also criticized the proposed cuts.
The United States Postal Service has over five hundred sixty thousand employees. It reported revenue of sixty-seven billion dollars last year -- more than either of its biggest private competitors, FedEx or UPS. But as the amount of physical mail decreases, so too have the earnings from Postal Service operations.
Committee member Joseph Lieberman noted the need for change.
JOSEPH LIEBERMAN: "The US Postal Service is not an 18th Century relic. It is a great 21st Century national asset. But times are changing rapidly now, and so too must the Postal Service if it is to survive."
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2013-11-25
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