(Image Source: The Inquisitr)
BY RUISHA QIAN
ANCHOR CHRISTINA HARTMAN
Snail mail is in trouble unless Congress acts. The U.S. Postal Service faces default -- and it’s asking Congress -- with the backing of the White House -- to extend the due date of a $5.5 billion bill the USPS owes the US Treasury.
Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe tells CNBC...
Donahoe: “We need the Congress to act immediately. We've been asking them. We went over today, had a hearing before the Senate. We need them to do three things: give us the opportunity to resolve the pre-payment issue, the $5.5 billion; let us move from six-day to five-day delivery; and give us refund. We've overpaid one of our retirement funds by $6.9 billion. Those three things. We can take care of the rest of the issues we need to take care of ourselves.”
So why is USPS so close the edge of a financial cliff? The volume of mail delivered has dropped by 22% in the past five years. But, The LA Times says that’s not all.
"Donahoe put the blame for the current crisis on federal laws and labor agreements that he said unduly restricted his agency's ability to adapt and promised more than the Postal Service could deliver. Labor costs amount to 80% of the service's expenses, and current contracts contain a no-layoff provision."
USPS says it needs a little more time to pay that $5.5 billion employee pension bill due this month -- but The New York Times suggests - gridlock in Washington won’t help the agency’s chances of getting help from the Hill.
“So far, feuding Democrats and Republicans in Congress, still smarting from the brawl over the federal debt ceiling, have failed to agree on any solutions. It doesn’t help that many of the options for saving the postal service are politically unpalatable.”
Donahoe says the agency also plans to help itself with cost-cutting moves like shutting down nearly 4,000 post offices, and changing delivery schedules. But Chicago’s WLS reports -- some are concerned those changes would adversely affect the rural poor.
"If the post office is the first thing that goes, what's the next?"
But NPR’s Corey Dade says things have to change. He talked with a former Postal Service manager who makes a suggestion other observers have also made -- go European.
“If you look in Europe, the postal industry has been deregulated for many years now... When you go into a post office in Europe, they look very different than our post offices. They often sell insurance, Internet access — just a range of creative ideas to make those facilities profitable. That's the question here.”
Transcript by Newsy.
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