From PostCom: Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) today introduced legislation to help address the dire financial situation facing the United States Postal Service. Carper's "Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Funding Reform Act of 2009" would restructure the postal service's retiree health payment schedule to produce significant cost savings over the next several years. The Carper bill also gives the postal service more borrowing authority to meet its financial obligations and get through this current fiscal year and next.
The Congressional Budget Office has published its cost estimate of H.R. 22, "United States Postal Service Financial Relief Act of 2009," as ordered reported by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on July 10, 2009. It said in part: "CBO estimates that enacting the bill would result in on-budget costs of about $5 billion and off-budget savings of $2.5 billion over the 2009-2019 period. (Cash flows of the Postal Service are classified as off-budget, while the PSRHBF is an on-budget account.) Combining those effects, CBO estimates that the net cost to the unified budget of enacting H.R. 22 would be about $2.5 billion over the 2010-2019 period. All of those effects reflect changes in direct spending. H.R. 22 would not affect revenues."
