Today, November 15, 2013, every installation of the United States Postal Service received instructions from Headquarters to tack a poster on their staff bulletin boards describing the venerable institution's financial results for recently concluded fiscal year 2013. Someone tried pretty hard to put a nice face on another loss, Five Billion Dollars this time, but given the facts, that was a tough assignment:
USPS ended fiscal year (FY) 2013 with a net loss of $5 billion, marking the seventh consecutive year in which the Postal Service incurred a net loss.
Even though the Postal Service has implemented a number of strategies that resulted in $15 billion in annual expense reductions since the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act was passed in 2006, the combination of onerous mandates in existing law and continued declines in First - Class Mail volume threatens the Postal Service’s financial viability.
“We’ve achieved some excellent results for the year in terms of innovations, revenue gains and cost reductions, but without major legislative changes we cannot overcome the limitations of our inflexible business model,” said PMG Pat Donahoe. “Congress is moving forward with legislation that has the potential to give us greater flexibility and put us back on a firm financial footing. We strongly encourage that they continue moving forward.”
No disrespect intended to Postmaster General Donahoe, but "moving forward" seems a very generous description for what Congress is doing about the problems of the U. S. Postal Service. Follow me out into the tall grass for a different angle on what Congress is doing.
Not much.
According to the New York Times:
The Postal Service said its losses were expected to continue until legislative changes ae made to help it return to financial stability. For over three years, the agency has been urging Congress to allow it to make several changes. These include getting a refund of $11 billion that was overpaid into one of its pension funds, ending Saturday mail delivery and stopping the prepayments for future retiree health benefits and replacing them with its own health insurance program. It would also like to enter into new lines of business, like delivering beer and wine by mail, which are now prohibited.
Legislation that several members of Congress say would help the agency shore up its finances is pending, but unlikely to pass this year.
So, for the fourth year in a row, aside from some posturing in a few Congressional committees, by the likes of Congressman Darrel Issa (R-CA) and Senator Tom Coburn, (R-OK) nothing is going to happen. .
Although the Postal Service is a federal government agency and its employees are federal employees, it has something of an odd bird status. It is "an independent establishment of the executive branch" of the government of the United States. The Postal Service receives not one penny of U.S. taxpayer money through appropriations, yet its ability to conduct the business it is charged to conduct is endlessly hampered and hindered by Congressional meddlers. While parts of its business compete with strong private sector actors like UPS and Federal Express, Congress forbids the Postal Service from conforming its prices to its costs of doing business. Those competitors may open and close stores and other installations at will and according to need, but not the Postal Service.
As of today, the U. S. Postal Service has less than two weeks operating cash on hand and has exhausted its lawful borrowing capacity ($15 billion). What next?
The same Congress that allowed the entire federal government to grind to a halt in order to stroke a few Congressional egos, would probably not blink twice at doing the same to the U.S. Postal Service. Yet, how would America's dependence on USPS be replaced? Not by the private sector, you can be sure. The magnitude of the numbers guarantees that no private corporation or conglomerate could possibly scale up quickly enough to replace, for America, what USPS does for America.
The numbers tell it all. Federal Express handles an average of 3.4 million pieces everyday. UPS handles an average of 15.8 million pieces, for a combined 19.2 million pieces. Huge numbers right? Really big companies, right? $79.6 billion in annual revenue. Wow!
The Postal Service, in Fiscal Year 2013, handled more than 430 million pieces per day, over five times the volume of FedEx and UPS combined, and did it at a total cost of $72.1 billion, less than what the competition charged for accomplishing so many fewer deliveries, all according to the New York Times and official Postal Service sources.
Millions of Americans directly suffered during the recent Republican shut down, but if and when the inaction and idiocy of Congress forces the Postal Service to shut down, hundreds of millions will suffer immediately and directly. Checks won't arrive. Medicine won't arrive. Even FedEx and UPS packages won't arrive, as they depend on much of their delivery service on the Postal Service for what they call that "last mile".
The 113th Congress is the least effective, least productive in American history. Their laziness and pigheadedness has placed the nation on the precipice of destruction of an institution that dates back to the Founders themselves and which helped build and knit America into the nation that we are.
Call your Congressman. Call your Senators. Tell them to save the United States Postal Service, this session, before it is too late.
/Rant